BEIJING and CHANGGE, China – Zhongpin Inc. announced the formation of a special committee of independent directors that will consider a proposal by Xianfu Zhu, the company’s chief executive officer, which would take the company private.

Raymond Leal, Xiaosong Hu and Yaoguo Pan are the committee members, the company said. The committee has retained Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP as its legal advisor and plans to retain independent financial advisors to assist it in their evaluation of the proposal and any additional proposals that may be made by Zhu, the company said.

Zhongpin Inc. announced on March 27 Zhu’s proposal to acquire all of the outstanding shares of the company's common stock at a proposed price of $13.50 per share in cash. Zhu currently owns approximately 17.5 percent of the Zhongpin’s common stock.