Majority stake in Copene acquired by Norquisa

21 August 1995 00:00  [Source: ICB]

NORQUISA IS now the major shareholder in Brazil's largest petrochemical producer, Copene, following a share auction in Rio de Janeiro last week.

Copene's 1994 production and capacity figures ('000 tonne/year)
	Production	Capacity
Ethylene	942	1080
Propylene	468.6	500
Butadiene	136.7	144
Benzene	294.5	298
Toluene	52.3	40
Xylenes	217.4	240

The auction, which took place on 15 August 1995, resulted in Norquisa, the holding company for all the petrochemical businesses at Camaçari, gaining 8% of the shares, taking its stake up to 55%.

Petroquisa, the state's chemicals arm, sold 32.76% of its 48.24% voting-share stake, retaining 15.48%. The other buyers were two new shareholders - Banco Nationale, which bought around a 10% stake, and a group of pension funds which purchased the remaining approximate 18%. No foreign investors were involved.

Due to the demand for the shares the minimum price increased during the auction, reaching $1139 for a block of 1000 shares and the total sold amounting to approximately $241m. Norquisa acquired 12 888 lots of 3000 shares.

Before the auction it had been rumoured Norquisa shareholders had made deals with registered bidders in order to gain control of Copene by buying the minimum number of shares required - an extra 3-4% would have given it a 51% majority stake. As part of a shareholder's agreement it had the right of first refusal for the shares on sale.

A spokeswoman for Copene said: 'Norquisa discussed the stake it wanted to acquire with the pension funds and other companies. It having a majority stake pleased the others.' She added: 'As Norquisa remains the major shareholder we are not going to have big changes.'

Chlorine and PVC producers CPC and Salgema are expected to be sold in late August or early September. Polypropylene producers Polibrasil and Poli-propileno look set to be auctioned off towards the end of the year.

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