Shares in petrochemical producer Braskem were down 20 percent in pre-market trading in Sao Paulo after petrochemical giant LyondellBasell Industries NV on Tuesday said it had ended talks with Braskem SA’s controlling shareholder, Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht SA, to acquire the company.
Reuters reported in March that talks with Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht SA over a potential $11 billion deal for Braskem had slowed due to issues linked to a delayed U.S. filing and a supply contract for naphtha with Petrobras.
In May, Braskem said its U.S.-listed shares would be delisted by the New York Stock Exchange after it failed to file its 2017 annual report on time.
Lyondell’s board had decided that it would not conclude the deal before Braskem files its 2017 20F annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, one source previously told Reuters.
Last week, Braskem announced it had to pay additional leniency fines to Brazilian authorities. Brazil’s federal auditor and controller’s office said on Friday Braskem had agreed to pay 2.87 billion reais ($733 million) by 2025 in a leniency deal to settle corruption charges.
The company already had paid 1.33 billion reais of the fine to federal prosecutors..
Odebrecht, which has been trying to restructure after being implicated in Brazil’s sweeping “Car Wash” scandal, had been discussing the deal with Lyondell for more than a year and a half.
The end of the talks to sell Braskem, Odebrecht’s crown jewel, complicates the restructuring efforts of the highly indebted conglomerate. Two of its units, Odebrecht Engenharia e Construcao, and ethanol unit Atvos, are already restructuring debt. Atvos has filed for bankruptcy protection last week.
LyondellBasell said it ended talks with Odebrecht SA “after careful consideration” but did not elaborate further.
Shares of LyondellBasell were up 2.3% at $79.50 in premarket trading.
By Debroop Roy and Tatiana Bautzer
Source: Reuters
Eastman is investing up to US$1 billion in building what it says is the world’s largest molecular plastics recycling facility in France. The new facility would use Eastman’s polyester renewal technology to recycle up to 160,000 metric tons of hard-to-recycle plastic waste annually – enough plastic waste to fill Stade de France national football stadium 2.5 times.
Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution has opened the books to investors to raise up to $10.8 billion in the country’s largest initial public offering (IPO), according to a term sheet seen by Reuters. The shares will be sold in a price range of 257,000 won to 300,000 won ($216.19-$252.36) apiece to raise between $9.2 billion and $10.8 billion, the term sheet showed.
The SHYNE (Spanish Hydrogen Network) project is the largest multisectoral consortium in Spain, created to promote the decarbonization of the economy through renewable hydrogen. SHYNE will have a total investment of €3.23 billion euros that will serve to develop more competitive technologies and evolve both the Spanish industry and its infrastructure towards decarbonization, generating more than 13,000 jobs.
