MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazilian petrochemical company Braskem SA's director Roberto Lopes Pontes Simoes is slated to take over as board chairman, reported InvestorsHub with reference to the company's statement on Monday.
Mr. Simoes's appointment, succeeding fellow Odebrecht SA appointee Marcelo Moses de Oliveira Lyrio, would open up a seat on the board.
A shareholders' meeting to formalize the appointment & elect a new director is yet to be scheduled.
Sao Paulo-based Braskem has been trying to move on from its involvement in a sprawling corruption investigation known as Car Wash that enmeshed its owners: Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht, the controlling shareholder, and Brazilian oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras.
Braskem's American depositary receipts are expected to resume trading on the New York Stock Exchange under its old ticker BAK this week.
The company's ADRs had been trading in New York over the counter since the company failed to meet a deadline to file annual financial disclosure forms with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Braskem has since filed the forms and remediated a series of material weaknesses, including in its anti-corruption compliance program and controls and so-called "tone at the top" shortcomings.
Braskem reported a profit of RD2.87 billion (USD740.2 million) for 2018, compared with RD3.92 million for 2017 and a net loss of RD729.2 million for 2016, according to securities filings.
Net revenue, meanwhile, fell to RD11.57 billion (USD2.99 billion) in 2018 from RD13.08 billion in 2017 and RD12.68 billion in 2016.
In the most recent financial forms filed with the SEC, Braskem noted the possibility of a change in control, given Odebrecht's bankruptcy filing and its attempt to sell its Braskem stake to petrochemicals giant LyondellBasell Industries NV.
As MRC informed before, Braskem is no longer pursuing a petrochemical project, which would have included an ethane cracker, in West Virginia. And the company is seeking to sell the land that would have housed the cracker. The project, announced in 2013, had been on Braskem's back burner for several years.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,436,390 tonnes in the first eight months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the PP consumption in the Russian market was 909,260 tonnes in January-August 2019, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
Braskem S.A. produces petrochemicals and generates electricity. The Company produces ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, xylenes, butadiene, butene, isoprene, dicyclopentediene, MTBE, caprolactam, ammonium sulfate, cyclohexene, polyethylene theraphtalat, polyethylene, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
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