Brazil’s Braskem stock shoots up on reports billionaire Nelson Tanure aims to acquire Novonor stake

SAO PAULO (ICIS)–Braskem’s stock rose sharply in Friday trading after reports citing unnamed sources said Brazilian entrepreneur Nelson Tanure would be seeking to acquire Novonor’s controlling stake at the petrochemicals major.

At some point, Braskem’s share rose nearly 10% on Friday, taking the whole Ibovespa stock index in Sao Paulo higher.

By afternoon trading, however, the stock had moderated the gain although it was still rising nearly 6%, compared with the previous close on 22 May.

The offer was first reported by Brazilian daily O Globo, with financial daily Valor Economico and news agency Reuters subsequently also publishing reports confirming the bid, citing also unnamed sources.

According to those sources, Tanure would be intending to indirectly assume control previously held by Novonor (called formerly Odebrecht) through one of his investment funds.

The proposal includes maintaining Novonor in the shareholding structure with a minority stake of 3%-5%, signaling a gradual transition strategy.

Novonor currently holds 50.1% of Braskem’s voting shares, while Brazil’s state-owned energy major Petrobras controls 47%.

However, the transaction depends on negotiations with Novonor’s creditor banks – Bradesco, Itaú, Banco do Brasil, Santander, and Brazil’s investment bank BNDES – which hold Braskem shares as collateral for debt estimated at Brazilian reais (R) 15 billion ($2.65 billion).

These banks currently control 50.1% of Braskem’s common shares, representing 38.3% of total capital.

Any control change must also consider Petrobras’ position as the second-largest shareholder with significant strategic influence.

In a written response to ICIS, Braskem said it would not comment.

Novonor and Petrobras had not responded to a request for comment at the time of writing.

Braskem’s financial metrics have been suffering for several quarter due to the global petrochemicals oversupply and low prices, which have hit hard some of the company’s key products such polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), or polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

Earlier in May, however, it said it had swung to a net profit during Q1 2025, compared to a net loss in the same quarter a year earlier. Its sales and earnings, however, continued shrinking during Q1 in the year-on-year comparison.

WHO IS TANURE
While it has been elusive for most media outlets to put a figure on Nelson Tanure’s fortune – even the well-known Forbes magazine has not put a figure on it and has not included him in its Rich List – the entrepreneur is considered one of Brazil’s richest men.

His businesses span in a wide range of sectors such energy (mostly electric utilities), civil construction through its firm Gafisa; oil and gas through PetroRio and investments in the exploration of natural resources; telecommunications, with participations in operators Oi and TIM Brasil; and healthcare, with Alliance Health and diagnostic laboratories, among others.

UNSUCCESSFUL DISPOSAL SO FAR
Novonor has attempted to sell its Braskem stake for years without conclusion. Previous interested parties included Abu Dhabi’s energy major Adnoc, Saudi Arabia’s SABIC – now part of oil major Aramco – and Brazilian conglomerate J&F, owned by the Batista brothers.

J&F reportedly offered R10 billion for Novonor’s stake, but neither this nor the other transactions materialized.

Novonor suffers from high leverage since the 2010s, when the company was at the center of the large, Latin America-wide corruption scandal known as Lava Jato in the mid-2010s.

The scandal also engulfed personalities from the first administration of the Workers Party (PT), the party of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, now back in power again and at the time led by him and his successor Dilma Rousseff.

($1 = R5.67)