Argentina's stock regulator on Friday rejected as inadequate an offer from Brazil's Braskem , Latin America's largest petrochemical company, to purchase the roughly 30 percent of the shares of plastic maker Solvay Indupa that are publicly traded. Solvay Indupa is the Argentine-Brazilian unit of Belgium's Solvay, which owns 70.59 percent of the company. The deal would represent Braskem's first move into production in Argentina.In a contract signed last month, Braskem would buy the stake held by Solvay and buy the remainder of Solvay Indupa on the Buenos Aires stock exchange."The offer presented by BRASKEM S.A of $1.35 per share is in line neither with the book value of the company, which as of Sept. 30 was $2.81, nor with average valuations during the fourth quarter of $3.92," Argentina's CNV market regulator said in a statement.The publicly traded shares of Solvay Indupa include a 16.71 percent stake held by Argentina's state pension fund, Anses.
Braskem SA is a Brazil-based company primarily engaged in the manufacture of basic petrochemical products. Shares of BAK traded higher by 1.0% or $0.17/share to $17.17. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $13.14 and as high as $18.58. On average, 262600 shares of BAK exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 131409.
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