By Brazil Stock Guide – Braskem (BRKM5, BRKM3; BAK) is expected to appoint Carlos Brandão as CFO and Camilla Tápias as general counsel, according to reporting by Brazil Stock Guide, as IG4 Capital moves to shape the petrochemical company’s leadership ahead of a likely change of control.
Market expectations are that IG4 will assume control of the company in May, as part of negotiations to acquire Novonor’s (formerly Odebrecht) stake — a timeline that already requires the early setup of a new management structure.
The names add to the expected appointment of Helcio Tokeshi as CEO — first reported by Brazil Stock Guide in December, before gaining broader market traction.
IG4 declined to comment.
Building the executive core
The names indicate that IG4 is structuring the core of management with a focus on financial discipline, restructuring and governance.
Carlos Brandão, managing partner and head of operations at IG4, brings experience in complex transformations and capital structure management. He spent around 15 years at Oi, including a stint as CFO during a period marked by restructuring and significant balance sheet pressure at the telecom operator. He also served as CEO of Iguá Saneamento, a company managed by IG4.
Camilla Tápias brings over 25 years of experience in regulatory and legal matters, with a career at Telefônica Brasil (Vivo), where she held senior roles in regulatory and corporate affairs. She left the company in May 2025.
More than isolated changes, the appointments suggest a coordinated effort to build a leadership team aligned with a restructuring agenda.
Transition already underway
Even before formal control is transferred, the transition has already begun behind the scenes. According to Brazil Stock Guide, executives linked to IG4 have been participating in meetings with Braskem’s current management and have introduced themselves to internal leadership in recent weeks — a move that signals preparation for the change in command.
The process reinforces the perception that the new management is taking shape even before the deal’s closing. There are preliminary discussions about a potential leadership rotation with Petrobras, although the matter remains undefined.
Control through debt
Additionally, the European Commission cleared the transaction without remedies on Tuesday (April 7), removing one of the final regulatory hurdles to the deal. The Phase 1 approval under the simplified procedure paves the way for closing.
The transaction between IG4 and Novonor does not follow the traditional model of a stake sale, but rather a control transfer structured through debt.
Over the past decade, Novonor accumulated significant liabilities and pledged its Braskem shares as collateral to creditors, creating a deadlock between the Odebrecht family and the banks. The solution involved the creation of the Shine I FIDC fund, a vehicle that consolidated approximately R$21.7 billion in assets and liabilities linked to the company — a scale that underscores the magnitude of the restructuring and the leverage embedded in the deal.
Within this structure, an IG4-linked private equity fund enters as the equity investor, assuming the economic position and replacing Novonor in the control block alongside Petrobras, which remains a key shareholder and the company’s main naphtha supplier.
Key creditors involved include Itaú, Bradesco, Santander, Banco do Brasil and BNDES — institutions central to the debt negotiations and the reshaping of control.
In practice, the deal uses debt — rather than a direct share purchase — as the main instrument to enable the transition, turning a distressed liability structure into a new governance framework. The reshaping comes at a critical moment for Braskem, which still faces a pressured balance sheet, legacy liabilities and a challenging global petrochemical cycle.
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