Brazil raises US$522 million with tender for 15 airports; Spain’s AENA big winner

Yesterday, the Brazilian government raised R$2.716 billion (about US$522 million) by bidding for 15 airports, including Congonhas, located in São Paulo’s center and the second busiest in the country.

Total proceeds were nearly three times the government’s minimum bid of R$938 million, or about US$180 million.

The bidding puts 92 percent of the country’s air traffic in private hands since the Brazilian government launched tenders in 2011 to award airport management to the private sector.

The big winner of Thursday’s tender was Spain’s Aena, awarded the contract to manage 11 airports, including Congonhas.

Aena committed to pay a total of US$1.603 billion, of which US$471 million is for the cost of the 30-year operating license and the remaining US$1.132 billion is for investment commitments.

The other winners were two Brazilian groups, XP Inversiones, which won two small airports in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and Novo Norte, which acquired concessions for two terminals in the Amazon capitals of Belén and Macapá.

The 15 concessioned airports handle about 30 million passengers annually (before the pandemic), or about 16 percent of Brazil’s air traffic.

“We are very pleased with today’s result,” said Infrastructure Minister Marcelo Sampaio, for whom “this is a day to celebrate because today we reached the mark of 100 tenders transferred in the last three years and eight months. In air transport alone, there are now 59 airports managed by the private sector.”

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