Carlos Slim Helú buys 6.5% of Braskem — in the class that cannot vote on anything, through foundations he disclaims
Acquired 22,446,380 Braskem Class A preferred shares (held as ADSs, each representing two Class A shares) — 6.5% of the 345,060,365 Class A shares outstanding at 30 June 2026 — for an aggregate $17,384,458 including commissions. Date of event requiring the filing: 30 October 2026. Filed 6 November 2026.
| Holder | Class A shares | % class | Aggregate cost | Implied $/sh |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Control Empresarial de Capitales | 5,028,344 | 1.5% | $4,467,421 | $0.8885 |
| Fundación Carlos Slim, A.C. | 13,828,294 | 4.0% | $10,238,238 | $0.7404 |
| Fundación Telmex, A.C. | 3,589,742 | 1.0% | $2,678,799 | $0.7462 |
| Combined | 22,446,380 | 6.5% | $17,384,458 | $0.7745 |
Source of funds: each entity's own working capital, "which may at times include margin loans from brokerage firms in the ordinary course of business." Item 4 states the shares were bought for investment and not to change or influence control, while reserving the right to later propose changes to capitalisation, board composition or operations. Inference The per-share figures above are division of the filing's aggregate cost by its share counts, not disclosed prices; Control Empresarial's basis is ~20% above both foundations', which implies different purchase windows the filing does not break out.
SC 13D, Braskem S.A., Class A preferred, CUSIP 105532105, filed 6 Nov 2026, event date 30 Oct 2026 · Braskem 6-K 20 Apr 2026 (judicial share purchase agreement, OPA undertaking) · Braskem 6-K 9 Jun 2026 (bylaws: Articles 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 19, 21, 41) · Braskem 6-K 26 Oct 2026 (restructuring proposals, US$2.25bn follow-on) · SC 13D/A Amd 8, PBF Energy, filed 13 Mar 2026
Slim is doing what Slim does: buying a wrecked hydrocarbons asset at pennies, days before an $11bn restructuring lands. His group already holds 21.2% of PBF Energy, so the appetite for cheap refining and petrochemical assets is documented. The 13D — rather than a passive 13G — plus Item 4's reserved right to propose changes to capitalisation and board composition, signals he intends to be heard in the restructuring. A patient value buyer taking a first position.
It is not a stake in Braskem. It is a position in a claim that attaches to Braskem shares, bought in the only class that carries it, at a size and through vehicles that make the control story structurally impossible. Whether the claim is the unregistered mandatory tender offer or a vote in the restructuring is genuinely undetermined — but the one reading the filing rules out is the one the press will run.
- The vehicles kill the control read outright. 17,418,036 of the 22,446,380 shares — 77.6% — sit in Fundación Carlos Slim and Fundación Telmex, and the family filers expressly disclaim beneficial ownership of them. You cannot assemble a control bloc out of shares you have formally disclaimed. The family's own investment company holds 1.5% of a non-controlling class. Against the PBF comparator — 21.2% held 100% in Control Empresarial, no foundation — this is a different instrument being bought for a different reason.
- The size is wrong for influence and right for an option. $17.4m against a proposed $2.25bn follow-on is 0.77% of the equity raise, and against $10.9bn of subject claims it is 0.16%. Critically, the 26 Oct 6-K reserves the backstop — $1.2bn under Braskem's proposal, $1.85bn under the creditors' — to the "main shareholders" or their designees. Influence over this capital structure is bought with a backstop commitment, not with 6.5% of the preferred.
- The date is a negotiation milestone, not a price low. The event date is 30 October 2026 — the exact date to which the 6-K says the restructuring milestone was extended. A value accumulation crosses 5% when the price obliges; this one crossed it on the calendar.
- The class carries a priced claim. The control block Novonor sold on 17 April and transferred on 3 June was 226,334,622 common plus 47,294,173 Class A preferred. The 20 Apr 6-K commits the buyer, Shine I FIP, to request CVM registration of an OPA for up to all outstanding common and preferred shares, with recipients entitled to sell "under the same conditions as the Transaction" — and states that a final administrative decision rejecting the OPA registration would terminate the transaction. Preferred is therefore not the inferior class here; it is a class with a reference price inside the control deal. Five months after closing that offer still has no published price.
- Funding language. "Working capital, which may at times include margin loans." Twenty-year strategic stakes are not margin-funded.
(A) The OPA claim. He is buying the tag-along entitlement. Bylaws Article 6 §4 and Article 10 extend tag-along to all shares regardless of class on a change of control, and control changed on 3 June 2026. At $0.77 a share, the position pays if the OPA is ever priced off the control-block consideration — which was paid in NSP debentures (two OSPI12 plus one OSPI22 per share) with no monetary value disclosed, making the reference price itself contestable and therefore worth having standing to contest.
(B) The restructuring vote. Inference Bylaws Article 9, Sole Paragraph provides that preferred shares with a minimum dividend acquire voting rights if that dividend goes unpaid for three consecutive financial years, and keep them until it is paid. Braskem's last dividend carried an ex-date of 20 April 2022; none has been paid for 2023, 2024 or 2025. On the face of the bylaws the Class A preferred has re-acquired the vote — and the follow-on and the debt-to-equity conversion both require a general meeting. I have not found a Braskem filing declaring that the voting right has vested, so this is read off the bylaws and the dividend record, not off a company statement. It is the strongest fact against hypothesis (A) and I am not resolving it.
What would separate them: the identity of the party the group engages first. An approach to CVM or to Shine I FIP over the OPA points to (A); a general-meeting requisition, a fiscal-board nomination under Article 41's sole paragraph, or a vote against the follow-on points to (B).
A 13D/A disclosing purchases of Braskem common shares (BRKM3), or the group being named among the "main shareholders" or designated backstop parties in the definitive plan. Either would mean this was the opening move of a control or strategic position and the consensus read was right about the destination, however odd the first step looked. Equally falsifying: the group selling into the market before any OPA edital or general meeting, which would make it a trade and both hypotheses above wrong.
PBF Energy, Amendment No. 8 (13 Mar 2026): 24,746,098 Class A shares, 21.2%, entire position in Control Empresarial, zero sole voting power, shared power across the seven family filers, no foundation involved. Braskem: 6.5%, three-quarters in foundations whose shares the family disclaims, margin-loan funding language, $17.4m. Same family, same sector, opposite construction. The shape of the position is the tell that the purpose differs.