Earlier this summer, the management team at Brazilian beef company Marfrig travelled to the UK for a series of investor meetings to discuss a spin-off and stock market listing of Moy Park, its chicken production operation in Northern Ireland. The team was scheduled to head to New York later in the month to continue the pitch – but never made the trip.

That's because less than week after the London roadshow, Marfrig scrapped plans for Moy Park's IPO and instead sold the business to JBS, a bigger Brazilian meat company, for £944 million. The buyer and seller had been in talks at the same time as an IPO was considered.