By Jeffrey T. Lewis


SÃO PAULO--J&F, the holding company that controls Brazilian meatpacking giant JBS, has offered 10 billion reais to purchase control of chemical company Braskem, the chemical company said Wednesday evening.

The offer, for the equivalent of $2.1 billion, is to buy the credit rights held by five creditor banks of Novonor, the engineering and construction company formerly known as Odebrecht. Novonor owns 38% of Braskem's total shares, representing 50.1% of voting shares, but the creditor banks control the stake because Novonor used the shares as a guarantee for a loan.

Novonor told Braskem that it and the creditor banks will study the offer and that so far there has been no decision regarding the proposal.

J&F, controlled by the Batista family, is the third potential buyer of the stake. Unipar Carbocloro last month offered 35.50 reais per share, to buy most of Novonor's stake in the chemical company.

The offer from Unipar came a month after an offer for Braskem by Apollo Global Management and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, or ADNOC.

Petroleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras, owns 36% of Braskem and 47% of its voting shares, and also has a right to first refusal if Novonor agrees to sell its stake to a third party. The state-controlled oil company earlier this week asked for access to Braskem's due diligence information, but also said it hadn't made any decisions in relation to the sale process for the chemical company.


Write to Jeffrey T. Lewis at jeffrey.lewis@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-13-23 0831ET