After entering business with Odebrecht in the area of port terminals, energy and sanitation, the Investment Fund of the Unemployment Saving Fund (FI-FGTS) purchased a slice of 30% of Odebrecht Transport Participações (OTPP), which acts in transportation and logistics. The transaction value was not disclosed.
With the admission of the fund in the OTPP, the interest of Odebrecht in the company was reduced from 100% to 70%. A stockholders agreement was signed granting to the FI-FGTS power to veto some themes, which are not explicated in the communication published by the Concessionaire ‘Rota das Bandeiras’, which has the OTPP as its major stockholder. For a week, Valor searched Odebrecht and the FI-FGTS, but none of them granted an interview.
The fund, managed by the Federal Savings Bank (CEF), was created in June 2007 to make investments in infrastructure, and has been entering into several partnerships with Odebrecht. The first of them came in August last year. In that month, Odebrecht associated to the port operator Dubai Ports World (DPW) and acquired the control (51.5%) of Embraport, company responsible for the project of one of the largest multi-purpose terminal of the country, in construction on the left margin of Santos Port.
The value of transaction was not informed, but only the work cost was estimated in R$ 1 billion. By the end of 2008, FI-FGTS had acquired 33.3% of the company, for R$ 450 million; therefore, being already in business.
Soon after, in two stages, first in April 2009, after in January of this year, the fund acquired 10% of participation that the Santander Bank held in the company owner of the concessionaire Santo Antônio Energia, which builds the hydroelectric plant of the same name at Madeira river. When it concluded the purchase, last January, it committed itself to invest R$ 1.3 billion in the plant, 25% with own capital and the remaining guaranteeing financings.
In October 2009, the fund entered in the capital of Foz do Brasil, the business unit in environmental engineering of the group. The fund kept 26.53%, and the transaction was estimated to an amount between R$ 400 million and R$ 500 million, one of the biggest deals already concluded by the fund.
The main assets of Odebrecht Transport are the concession of Rodovia D. Pedro I, in São Paulo, acquired in an auction by the end of 2008; the Embraport terminal, in Santos; interest in Via Quatro, concessionaire of the yellow line of subway in São Paulo; and two minor concessions in Bahia and Pernambuco.
Up to now almost all the revenue of Odebrecht Transport is sustained by Rodovia D. Pedro, which pays almost R$ 500 million per year to the company. Other assets are still in maturation period: Via Quatro should reach 700 thousand passengers/day when it starts operating, but its schedule is late and it is operating experimentally. The Embraport terminal is being repaired, and the forecast is that the first phase starts to operate by the end of 2012.
The greatest investment of the group was in the concession of Rodovia D. Pedro, which links the region of Campinas to Paraíba Valley, with 296 km. The company enter in the auction alone, offering the toll value close to the ceiling price, but it had to bear with R$ 1.3 billion grant by the highway, still taking over the commitment of investing R$ 2.4 billion along the 30 years of concession. The concession was baptized ‘Roda das Bandeiras’.
In the horizon of Odebrecht Transport the main challenge is the competition in the bid of the East and South section of Rodoanel. The public notice was launched in the beginning of August and the final date for proposals to be submitted is in November. The investment is high, and so are the risks. In exchange for the two sections, the company will have to invest more than R$ 4 billion to install 42 km of highway on the east side, bearing with the dispossession risks and environmental licensing.
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