RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Brazilian development bank BNDES offers a digital hub with all of the country’s concession and privatization projects, where interested parties can find detailed information about them.
More than that, they can make themselves available to be contacted by others who have a desire to invest and form associations, partnerships, or consortia. If the project fits, that’s it! All you have to do is talk.
“The original function of the hub was to show investors the bank’s entire portfolio of about 120 projects. Together, they represent an investment volume of about R$260 (US$51) billion. If we add the projects in Paraíba and Sergipe in the sanitation sector, this sum rises to R$270 billion, and if we take into account the potential subsidies, it could easily reach or exceed R$300 billion,” says Fabio Abrahão, in charge of the Concessions and Privatizations Directorate at BNDES, in an exclusive interview with newspaper Exame.
The informative inspiration was a project portal from Mexico. But there was no account platform there. However, given this huge number of projects in Brazil, it didn’t take long for the bank to realize what this meant in practice.
“In highways, we have between 17 and 18 thousand kilometers of concessions. This means almost doubling the private market since today Brazil has 21 thousand kilometers under private concession,” he points out, noting that there are currently four participants in this market in Brazil and that it may be necessary to attract new entrants.
The same reasoning applies to the ports sector, where there are already private operators. However, according to Abrahão, none of them act as port authorities – where the next bids will be received.
For basic sanitation, the reality is not much different from the new legal framework. Today, 10 million people are served by private initiatives in the country, but the projects available to the bank can serve 35 million people.
On the platform set up by the BNDES, interested parties not only receive information about the concessions and other sectoral data, but they can also fill out a more detailed registration form to make themselves available for contact by other interested parties. “All data are, of course, protected.”
BNDES’ marketplace aims to shorten the path of capital seekers and capital looking for a strategic partner. “We are always asked to make these presentations, but as public servants, we have limits. On this platform, meetings can take place depending on the interests of each individual,” Abrahão concluded.