Braskem, the leading company in the thermoplastic resins industry in Latin America and third-largest resin producer in the Americas, announces the approval, at the Extraordinary Shareholders’  Meeting held today, of the merger into Braskem of Ipiranga Petroquímica (IPQ), Petroquímica Paulínia S.A. (PPSA) and the spun off portion of Ipiranga Química (IQ) that refers to the interests in IPQ and ISATEC - Pesquisa Desenvolvimento e Análises Químicas Ltda.
Copesul, which was also included in the acquisition of the petrochemical assets of the Ipiranga Group, was merged into IPQ on September 11, 2008 and now with the merger of IPQ is also a part of Braskem.
According to CEO Bernardo Gradin, "these mergers represent the conclusion of another important step in the consolidation of the Brazilian petrochemical assets. This step, which began with the acquisition of the petrochemical assets of the Ipiranga Group in March 2007 and was followed by the investment agreement signed with Petrobras in November last year, was concluded within the original timetable announced to the market. The conclusion of the acquisition process also enables the accelerated capture of the synergies we announced, which will increase the competitiveness of the Company as well as that of the entire petrochemical and plastics production chain in Brazil."
The assets merged were valued at R$3.4 billion. As Braskem, prior to the merger, held 100% of the total capital of IQ and PPSA and 99.3% of the total capital of IPQ, it shall issue only 1,506,061 class "A" preferred shares to be delivered to the minority shareholders of IPQ, which represent 0.3% of the Company's total capital.
Shareholders not willing to exchange IPQ shares for Braskem shares may exercise the withdrawal right in the amount of R$0.028632772 per IPQ share, in accordance with the conditions established in the Material Fact notice published on September 12, 2008.
Following these mergers, Braskem’s capital stock will increase to R$5.4 billion, divided into 524,391,654 shares, 196,714,190 of which are common shares 326,874,398, class "A" preferred shares and 803,066 class "B" preferred shares.