MOVES: Brazil Braskem names Roberto Simoes as CEO

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Brazilian polyolefins producer Braskem named the current chairman of the board, Roberto Simoes, as the company’s new CEO, replacing Fernando Musa, according to a regulatory filing.

Musa will remain CEO through 31 December to help Simoes transition to the new role, Braskem said. Simoes’s appointment will become effective on 1 January.

Simoes had earlier been CEO of Ocyan from 2014 to 2019. Before that, he was CEO of Odebrecht Defesa e Tecnologia from 2010-2012. He had been executive vice president of Braskem from 2004-2008.

As CEO of Braskem, Simoes will maintain the competitiveness of all of the company’s operations, the company said. He will also increase the company’s feedstock flexibility and geographic diversity, steps that are already being pursued by the company.

Musa had headed Braskem’s US operations before becoming the company’s CEO back in 2016.

During his tenure, the company’s salt mine in Maceio, Alagoas state was found to be causing subsidence in the nearby neighbourhoods of Pinheiro, Bebedouro and Mutange, exposing the company to hundreds of millions of dollars in potential liabilities.

A state regulator said Braskem’s mine was responsible for the subsidence and the subsequent damage that it caused to homes and buildings in the neighbourhoods.

In response, Braskem closed the salt mine, causing it to also shut down a chlor-alkali unit and a downstream plant that produced ethylene dichloride (EDC).

During Musa’s tenure, Braskem also failed to file its 2017 and 2018 annual reports in time with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As a result, the company’s US listed shares were removed from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

The company had since filed its annual reports, and its shares have resumed trading on the NYSE.

During this time, LyondellBasell was considering acquiring Braskem. It had started talks with the contractor Odebrecht, which owns a majority stake in the company.

LyondellBasell would ultimately terminate these talks.

Musa’s tenure did have some high points.

The company started up its joint venture polyethylene (PE) project in Mexico with partner Grupo Idesa.

Braskem started construction of a new polypropylene (PP) plant in the US, which should start operations in 2020.

The capacity will be 1bn lb/year (454,000 tonnes/year).

It also completed a project at its Camacari complex in Bahia state that allowed a cracker there to use imported ethane as a feedstock.

Musa navigated Braskem through the fallout of the Lava Jato corruption scandal, signing a leniency agreement with regulators in Brazil, Switzerland and the US.