Statement Regarding Control of COPENE - Petroquimica do Nordeste and the Restructuring of the Brazilian Petrochemical Sector.

Business Editors

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 8, 2001

The following text was published by the Mariani Group and the Odebrecht Group, shareholders of COPENE - Petroquimica do Nordeste S.A. (NYSE: PNE; BOVESPA: CPNE5), in respect of the change of control of the Company described therein and the restructuring of the Brazilian petrochemical sector. COPENE - Petroquimica do Nordeste neither expresses nor implies any opinion on, or endorsement of, any of the content thereof, and reports it pursuant to this Form 6-K for information purposes only.

The Mariani Group and the Odebrecht Group, through Nova Camacari Participacoes S.A., were the winners in the auction of the assets of the so called "Ativos Economico S/A Empreendimentos" ("ESAE"), carried out in the city of Sao Paulo on July 25, 2001, becoming controllers of Norquisa which, in turn, controls COPENE.

BACKGROUND

In order to improve the value of the ESAE Assets, the Central Bank, as Liquidator of the Banco Economico, structured a process that contemplated the sale, together with the sale of the ESAE Assets, of a block of assets, including the participations of other companies in Norquisa, thus forming the so called "Grupo Protocolo" ("Protocol Group"). It then announced two auctions for the sale of the package of participations, in December 2000 and March of 2001, both frustrated.

The Odebrecht and Mariani Groups, as large investors in the Northeastern Center (Camacari and Alagoas), had a greater interest that the difficulties that inhibited the development of COPENE be overcome, and for this reason decided to contribute decisively to a solution. With this aim, the Odebrecht and Mariani Groups presented a Purchase Proposal of the so called ESAE Assets to the Central Bank, which led the Central Bank to call a third auction, which was held successfully on July 25th.

THE 3RD AUCTION

The 3rd Auction had as its objective the sale of 100% of the ESAE Assets for the minimum price of R$785 million. The winner of the 3rd Auction, upon buying ESAE, obligated itself to respect the following rights of joint sale ("tag along") of the remaining constituents of the Protocol Group and of the Conepar shareholders agreement:

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Assets                             % Total Capital
ESAE (1)                                    100.00
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Rights of Joint Sale (tag along)
Intercapital (1)(2)                         100.00
Conepar shares (2)                           11.76
Proppet                                     100.00
Copene shares                                 0.60
Norquisa shares                              13.79
Norquisa shares                              13.84
-------------------------------------------------------
      (1) ESAE and Intercapital hold, respectively, 56.31% and 31.92% of
total Conepar capital.
      (2) Minimum values calculated proportionately to the ESAE value.


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 Owner                         Minimum Value (R$1,000)
 Banco Economico                               785,000
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 Nova Odequi / Pronor / CBP                    444,880
 BNDESPAR                                      183,997
 Nova Odequi / Nitrocarbono                     23,535
 Nova Odequi                                     8,127
 Trikem                                        183,604
 Pronor                                        184,138
-------------------------------------------------------

DESCRIPTION OF THE ASSETS ACQUIRED

Declared winner of the 3rd Auction and having exercised the subsequent rights of joint sale, Nova Camacari became holder of all the common shares issued by Conepar - Companhia Nordeste de Participacoes, and of Proppet S.A. Conepar holds the control (66.67% of voting capital) of Polialden Pertoquimica S.A. and an important participation of 31% in the capital of Politeno S.A. Industria e Comercio, both second generation operational companies, producers of thermoplastic resins.

Trikem exercised its right of joint sale against Odebrecht Quimica, by signing a contract option for the sale of 16.03% of the voting capital of Norquisa, which will be exercised within the 120 day contractual period.

Within the context of the 3rd Auction, Odebrecht Quimica acquired 23.69% of the common shares of Norquisa, held indirectly by Polialden, for R$242 million - proportionate value resulting from the exercise of the joint sale of Trikem and Pronor - thus consolidating the control of Norquisa, with the Mariani Group. The participation of the two Groups in the Norquisa voting capital is now 55.78%. Norquisa holds 58.41% of the voting capital of COPENE.

Still in the context of the 3rd Auction, Nova Camacari acquired, as a result of the exercise of the joint sale, 31.92% of Conepar capital, held indirectly by the Odebrecht and Mariani Groups, and 11.76% held by BNDESPAR, now holding 100% of Conepar capital. Furthermore, by the exercise of the joint right of sale held by companies controlled by the Odebrecht and Mariani Groups, Nova Camacari acquired 100% of the capital of Proppet.

With prior authorization of the Board of Administration, after the 3rd Auction, COPENE acquired Nova Camacari, assuming assets acquired in the context of the Auction - ESAE, Intercapital, direct participation of BNDESPAR in Conepar and Proppet - as well as respective loans, for the amount of R$1,417.5 million.

The Development of the Petrochemical Sector

The restructuring of the Northeastern Center, started with the success of the 3rd Auction, is a milestone for the development of national petrochemistry, as it will permit:

- The immediate resumption of the modernization and growth of the Northeastern
Center;

- The reduction of its operational and fiscal costs, with the elimination of
one link in the productive chain through integration of an important segment of
the second generation companies of the Northeastern Center into COPENE;

- Open the way for new investments, such as the expansion of the installed
capacity in the production of Polyethylenes, Polypropylene, Styrene, PVC, and
PET;

- As a result of gains in scale, accelerate investments in technology to assure
full dominion of, and capacity to develop the technologies used;

- Align the interests of all COPENE shareholders and of the second generation
companies related to it, under a single results center.

The outcome of the process that is now beginning should be an integrated company that will exert a leadership position in the thermoplastics market, not only in Brazil, but in all Latin America.

Only large companies, holders of technology and internationally competitive, will be able to survive in the global market and face the strong competition that acts within and outside our borders.

Adding value to COPENE by the synergistic benefits and good corporative management practices that they impart, Petrobras Quimica S.A. - Petroquisa, and the Petros and Previ Foundations, COPENE's principal minority shareholders, have signed with the Odebrecht and Mariani Groups, Memoranda of Understanding for the execution of a COPENE Shareholders Agreement.

Consequently, COPENE will be a company of a scale that will guarantee its competitiveness and vocation of a truly open capital company, that will permit access to capital markets to finance its growth.

The Odebrecht and Mariani Groups undertake the following commitments before the companies and institutions that participate in the restructuring process, their shareholders, and other capital market agents:

- In order to assure the absence of conflicts of interests, the

petrochemical assets of the Odebrecht and Mariani Groups will be

opportunely integrated into COPENE, and the operations for such

will be object of broad publicity. The elimination of potential

conflicts of interests was the objective of understandings with

Petroquisa and the Petros and Previ Foundations, and will be

implemented as soon as possible.

- All the assets belonging to the Odebrecht Groups (namely Odebrecht

Quimica-OPP Quimica and their participations in Trikem and

Copesul), the Mariani Group (Nitrocarbono), or third parties, to

be integrated into COPENE, will be the object of independent

appraisal by a first line investment bank.

- The resulting company will be managed by modern corporate

governance principles and its managers will make every effort to

rank it, as soon as possible, in the Level 1 segment of companies,

as defined in Resolution 2829 of the National Monetary Council

(CMN).

- Going beyond the requirements of Resolution 2829 of the CMN for

companies ranked in Level 2, the right of joint sale (tag along)

of their respective participations, shall be assured to all COPENE

shareholders of common and preferred shares, in the hypothesis of

the sale of the controlling interest in COPENE.

- The principles of "open books" (full disclosure), established in

Resolution 2829, shall be practiced as of this moment.

- Priority attention will be given to the entities that regulate

capital markets and that protect free competition , such as CVM -

Brazilian Securities Commission, CADE - Economic Defense

Administrative Council, and the Specialized Secretariats of the

Ministries of the Economy and of Justice (SAE and SDE), in order

to assure the timely availability of all information necessary to

evaluate and deliberate the operations that must follow this first

step.

- Equal attention will be rendered to the SEC - Securities Exchange

Commission of the United States, where COPENE securities are

already traded.

About COPENE - Petroquimica do Nordeste S.A.:

COPENE produces and sells basic petrochemicals and utilities. The Company is listed on the Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro stock exchanges and its ADRs (American Depositary Receipts) are traded in the US on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PNE. One ADR represents 50 preferred class A shares. At June 30, 2001, COPENE had 1,792,416,435 shares outstanding. For additional information, please refer to the Company's web site at www.copene.com.br.