Brazil's Braskem, Unipar confirm talks after report of US plant sales

By Luciana Magalhaes

SAO PAULO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Brazilian petrochemical companies Braskem BRK53.SA and Unipar UNIP6.SA said on Friday that they had kicked off talks regarding some of Braskem's assets.

Neither firm's stock exchange filing mentioned specific assets. A source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that Unipar was weighing a deal to buy Braskem's units in Texas, Pennsylvania and West Virginia for around $1 billion, as first reported by newspaper O Globo.

Conversations have been ongoing for several weeks, but have not yet come close to a final agreement, the source said.

Both firms said that a confidentiality agreement had been signed, but that no other deal, binding or not, had been reached.

They declined to comment further when contacted by Reuters.

Braskem's chief executive officer had on Thursday denied any interest in selling the assets.