Infra Week: Brazil federal government auctions off concessions for 22 airports, 5 seaports and 1 railroad

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Finishing Infra Week, on Friday, April 9th, the government auctioned five port terminals in Brazil. Of these, four are in the Port of Itaqui (IQI03, IQI11, IQI12, and IQI13), in Maranhão, to be leased for 20 years, and one in the Port of Pelotas (PEL01), in Rio Grande do Sul, for 10 years.

In all, the auction raised R$216 million in grants for the federal government. In total, the projects will represent investments of R$600 million during the concession contract.

Santos Brasil, the company that manages one of the largest container terminals in Santos (SP), won the dispute for three of the five port terminals auctioned on B3. Terminal Químico de Aratu took another port area, and CMPC Celulose Riograndense won the warehouse concession in the Port of Pelotas (RS), with a single bid of R$10,000.

Santos Brasil bought three areas in Itaqui. In the first, IQI12, the company bid R$ 61.3 million, with a premium of 44.24%. In IQI11, it was the only participant and made a bid of R$56 million, a premium of 15.06%.

IQI12 and IQI13, for which the minimum value was R$1, were open to bids and had strong competition.

In IQI12, the dispute was between the Aratu Chemical Terminal (Tecmar) and Santos Brasil, with initial proposals of R$37.5 million and R$29 million, respectively. Santos Brasil won with a bid of R$ 40 million at the viva voce.

IQI13 had the highest dispute of the auction and counted with four rounds of bids at the viva voce. In this case, Terminal Químico de Aratu won with a R$ 59 million proposal.

For the Port of Pelotas area, the only participant was CMPC Celulose Riograndensse, which won with a bid of R$10,000 against the minimum price of R$1.

Infra Week

The sale of assets closed a week that began with the auction to grant 22 airports to the private sector for up to 30 years, which yielded R$3.3 billion, along with a stretch of the West-East Integration Railroad (Fiol), in Bahia.

In two years, the government’s concessions program has auctioned 41 assets and contracted R$44 billion in investment and R$ 13 billion in concessions.

By 2021, the Presidential Palace expects that more than 50 projects will be awarded, guaranteeing more than R$ 140 billion for the sector. The government expects to reach the end of 2022 with the contracting of R$ 250 billion in infrastructure.

Airports

On Wednesday, April 7th, 22 airports were auctioned, with a premium of more than 3,000% in relation to the minimum values set by the government, totaling R$3.3 billion in concession values, in addition to the R$6.1 billion that companies must invest in the terminals. The concessions were divided into three blocks:

South – Curitiba, Bacacheri, Foz do Iguaçu and Londrina (PR), Navegantes and Joinville (SC), and Pelotas, Uruguaiana and Bagé (RS);

North  – Manaus, Tabatinga and Tefé (AM), Porto Velho (RO), Boa Vista (RR), and Rio Branco and Cruzeiro do Sul (AC);

Central – Goiânia (GO), Palmas (TO), São Luís and Imperatriz (MA), Teresina (PI) and Petrolina (PE).

Brazilian company CCR, which manages the Confins airport (metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte), took the South and Central blocks for R$2.1 billion and R$754 million, respectively. French company Vinci Airports, which runs the Salvador terminal, won the North block for R$ 420 million.

In an interview with CNN, Minister of Infrastructure Tarcísio Gomes celebrated the result and guaranteed that the federal government will fulfill the plan of R$250 billion in investments contracted until 2022.

Railroad

On Thursday, April 8th, the auction for the West-East Integration Railroad (FIOL) took place, between Ilhéus and Caetité, in Bahia, with only one company bidding. Bahia Mineração (BAMIN) bought the asset for R$32.7 million, the minimum amount proposed by the federal government.

The 537-kilometer stretch should also receive R$3.3 billion in investments during the 35 years of the concession, R$1.6 billion to conclude the works, and generate 65,000 direct and indirect jobs.

The government also expects to conclude the implementation of two more stretches for the railroad: between Caetité (BA) and Barreiras (BA) and from Barreiras (BA) to Figueirópolis (TO). With this, it will be able to connect the port of Ilhéus to the North-South railroad.

Source: CNN Brasil