Braskem

Braskem is one of the leaders petrochemicals companies in the world. The company produces a variety of products being the focus of the business the polyethylene, polypropylene and PVC. The company is listed on the Sao Paulo, New York and Madrid Stock Exchanges. It has more than 4000 associates.

Company History
Braskem´s history begins in 1979 when “Oberbrecht” a civil construction company, starts operating in the petrochemical market buying the PVC company producer “Camacarl Petrochemical Company (CPC)”. During the 1980´s, this family group makes huge investments on the sector: it invests a capital in Salgema (producer of Sodium Chloride), in Poliolfinas (producer of polyethylene), PPH (producer of polyprophlylene), and in Unipar (holding of petrochemical companies). At the same time the family group decided to create an affiliate (Odebrecht Quimica S.A.) that would be in charge of administrating all the investments of the group on this sector. The 1990´s is a very significant epoch for the Oderbrecht group because the Brazilian government begins to privatize the petrochemical sector. As a result the Oderbrecht group buys a several number of companies of the sector with presence in Brazil (Copesul,PPH, Poliolfinas, Salgema, CPC) becoming part of the controller group. It integrated PPH and Poloilfinas creating OPP petrochemical S.A. as well as Salgema and CPC creating Trikem S.A. The 2000´s is the most important epoch on the history of Braskem because it is the epoch when it is formally born. Between 2001 and 2002 the Odebrecht group acquires Copene and then integrates 6 big petrochemical companies creating Braskem: Copene, OPP, Trikem, Nitrocarbon, Proppet and Polialden. Since that moment, Braskem, as a publicly owned company, has acquired a big number of new companies and is consolidating itself as one of the most important companies on the petrochemical sector.

Political and Public Influence
Since Braskem is a publicly owned company, it has not participated in any political or public initiative.

Corporate Accountability
Due its very short story, Braskem is just about to consolidate itself as an organized and integral company. Braskem, however, publishes a very organized and structured corporate governance structure on its webpage. It dedicates a chapter exclusively to sustainable development and another one exclusively to social responsibility. In those chapters the company announces its variety number of projects and programs dedicated to help and contribute to the progress of Brazil. It has not been involved in any big controversy or problem.

Labor and competition
19 July 2008: “Petrochemical industry launches five trade union networks” 

This article announces the launch of 5 new trade unions. According to the article, this is a result of a several number of meetings that the company has had with the work leaders of the company. The objective with this decision is to “integrate the company’s workers and improve their working conditions and quality of life”.

14 May 2007: “Producer objects to Ipiranga takeover”

The article exposes the controversy that was generated around the decision of Braskem of taking over Ipiranga. According to the article, an independent producer was about to file a complaint with the federal anti-monopoly authorities. According to this producer the production of petrochemicals products in Brazil is concentrated on the hands of just one company. This producer also affirms that if the take over of Ipiranga occurs, companies like his are just about to disappear.

Environment
2007: “Braskem awarded with GE 2007 Ecomagination prize for its remarkable environmental leadership” 

This article announces that Braskem won a very important prize for its leadership on its sector in terms of environment. According to the article since its foundation 5 years before, Braskem has been a very important agent, for example, to save water, to produce without damaging the ambient and to, more than everything, develop new technologies that make the production process a much more eco-friendly process.

17 December 2008: “Braskem approves Green Polyethylene project” 

This article celebrates the decision taken by Braskem of developing a new project that would make the polyethylene production process a much cleaner process. According to the article, this way of producing the polyethylene should begin in 2011 and would cost the company more than $500 million dollars. The project’s name is “Producing green polyethylene” and consists on producing it from 100% renewable raw material.

Financial Information
All the financial reports of the company are available on the following webpage:

http://www.braskem.com.br/site/portal_investidores/en/financeiras/apresentacoes/apresentacoes.aspx

Governance
A nickname and a password are needed to consult anything related to the board of directors. The names of the members are not available.