São Paulo and Brasília airport auctions require foreign participation in consortium

16/12/2011 - 10h10

The government scheduled the auction of the airports of Cumbica, in Guarulhos, Brasília and Viracopos, in Campinas, for February 6, and established a model that requires the participation of foreign companies in the consortium.

The minimum price was substantially increased, rising from R$ 2.9 billion to R$ 5.5 billion for the three lots, as recommended by the TCU (Federal Accounts Auditing Court).

The bid rules, quickly finished yesterday afternoon by Anac (National Agency of Civil Aviation), will be published in an extra edition of the "Diário Oficial da União" (Federal Official Gazette of Brazil).

The need to make new groups with foreign participation occurs because Anac requires the consortiums to have a minimum 5% participation of an operator with proven experience in managing airports of at least 5 million passengers a year during a minimum of five years.

In Brazil, only Infraero (Brazilian Company of Airport Infrastructure) controls airports with that capacity. The bid rules already demand Infraero to have 49% participation in the three consortiums.

Executive-secretary of Civil Aviation Cleverson Aroeira defended Brazil's need to incorporate international technology in the sector. "We will create better managment practices even in Infraero itself."

Besides controlling 49% of the SPE (Society of Specific Purpose) that will manage the airports, Infraero will also have power to assess the prices of scheduled projects.

That is because, as major Brazilian contractors will comprise the groups, there is a risk of the contractors themselves being hired for the airport construction and will artificially inflate the value of the investments.

After pressure from the world's major operators, Anac also decided to allow air companies to have up to 2% of the consortium, twice the amount in previous studies.

The president of Anac, Marcelo Guaranys, said the change will lead to more competition in the auction. "Guaranteeing the 1% is difficult, because these groups' partnership constitution is very complex."

MINIMUM PRICE

Anac set the minimum grant price for the airports at R$ 3.4 billion (Cumbica), R$ 1.471 billion (Viracopos) and R$ 582 million (Brasília). The high bidder will win the auction, but none can control more than one airport.

The highest investment predicted is for the Viracopos airport - 8.7 billion -which is part of the plan to make the Campinas airport the country's main airport in the 2020s.

There are, however, a lot of expenses concentrated in projects for the 2014 World Cup - the main project is the third terminal of the Guarulhos airport (greater São Paulo). The bid rules also establish minimum quality indicators, such as waiting time, number of seats and parking spaces.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO