Brazil’s Unigel appoints Dario Gaeta as CEO after debt restructuring greenlit

SAO PAULO (ICIS)–Brazilian chemicals producer Unigel has concluded its debt restructuring process worth Brazilian reais (R) 5.1 billion ($885 million) after a Sao Paulo business court greenlit the plans drawn up by creditors.

Unigel said it would be able to deleverage its debts by around 50% with the restructuring process’ conversion of R5.1 billion of existing debt into new financial instruments.

The restructuring puts an end to the decades-long private ownership of Unigel in the hands of its founder, 88-year-old Henri Armand Szlezynger.

“The execution of the RE [restructuring] Plan marks a pivotal transition in Unigel’s governance framework, with Option A [main] Creditors now holding a 50% stake in the company’s equity structure,” said Unigel.

The new majority owners headhunted for the CEO position the Brazilian executive Dario Gaeta, with decades of experience at industrial and agricultural companies.

Up to 2024, he was chief operating officer at ethanol producer Atvos and, prior to that, he was the CEO at Tiete Agroindustrial, another company in the sugar and ethanol sector, according to Gaeta’s LinkedIn profile.

Former CEO Roberto Noronha has been demoted to board member, and the vice president who has overseen the restructuring, Daniel Zilberknop, an old name in Unigel, has been appointed chairman of the board.

Unigel’s new board composition

Position	Name	Representative
Chairman of the Board	Daniel Zilberknop	Independent
CEO	Dario Gaeta	Not provided
Board Member	Marc Buckingham Szlezynger	Cigel
Board Member	Roberto Noronha Santos	Cigel
Board Member	Pedro Wongtschowski	Cigel
Board Member	Fabio de Barros Pinheiro	Creditors
Board Member	Kofi William Bentsi-Enchill	Creditors
Board Member	Gregorio Mario Charnas	Creditors

The restructuring plan also signals an exit from the fertilizers sector, as already outlined at the beginning of the restructuring process by creditors.

High prices for natural gas – fertilizers’ main feedstock – was the main cause for that part of the business to start faltering, dragging the rest behind it in the end.

Some plants which were leased to Unigel by Brazil’s state-owned energy major Petrobras are reportedly on course to return under Petrobras’ umbrella, even if Unigel may continue operating them.

Unigel, then, is to remain mostly what it was before it ventured into fertilizers and was caught up in a major sector downturn. The company mostly produces styrenics and acrylics. For products and capacities, see bottom table.

SULPHURIC ACID PLANT
Earlier in January, Unigel presented plans to finish construction of its sulphuric acid plant in the state of Bahia, which had been paused as the company’s financial woes increased.

Unigel said it would invest $36.8 million to finish up the plant in Camacari, aiming to start it up by September. Production capacities were not disclosed.

When fully functioning, the plant will allow Unigel to reduce its acid purchases in the open market. Acid is a key chemical used in many other chemical and industrial processes.

Jonathan Szwarc, head of Latin America credit research at data firm specializing in leveraged capital markets Debtwire, who covered Unigel in the past, said by reducing its dependency on imports the sulphuric acid plant was a sound project from which Unigel’s could start building up its recovery.

“The numbers for that project are sound. From my time covering Unigel, I remember the return on investment was expected to be very healthy: in up to four years, the company expects to have paid off the investment, such are the large amounts of acid it has to purchase in the open market,” said Szwarc.

Earlier this month, Unigel also presented, for the first time in several quarters, a financial forecast for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) up to 2030.

The company has not published any financial results since 2023, a provision contemplated under Brazilian corporate law for companies in financial distress.

For 2025, Unigel said it expected upsides coming from a 5% increase in Brazil’s styrene import tariff ($4 million positive contribution) and a higher rate in the REIQ tax benefit system for chemicals companies ($14 million).

According to Unigel, its EBITDA could rise to $182 million by 2030.

Unigel forecasts	2025	2026	2027	2028	2029	2030
EBITDA (in $ million)	49	142	164	176	173	182

Whether Unigel’s medium-term forecasts are realized remains to the seen, as it ultimately is a company in very deep financial distress for the past year and a half, operating in a market – petrochemicals – which is going through one of the longest sector’s downturns.

“2030 is indeed quite a long forecast on this occasion. But, of course, for a judge to approve your restructuring plan you must present some sort of credible plan: detailed forecasts on financials, on spreads, on production…” said Szwarc.

“Whether those forecasts end up realized, that’s another matter. But as we say in this world – an Excel [spreadsheet] can withstand almost anything,” he concluded, ironically.

($1 = R5.76)

Additional information by Yashas Mudumbai

Focus article by Jonathan Lopez