Brazil infra officials trying to woo US investors

Brazilian infrastructure ministry officials will be in the US until October 8 to attract investors to infrastructure concessions, but analysts have raised doubts. 

As part of the roadshow, infrastructure minister Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas presented projects to representatives of Goldman Sachs and Macquarie on Monday.

"I'm very optimistic about this series of meetings that promise to be productive for logistics in Brazil," Gomes de Freitas said in a statement.

The roadshow is the first since the pandemic hit. Previously, roadshows were organized in the US, Spain, Germany and the UK.

Officials hope to win over more investors to the large projects that will be auctioned soon.

However, analysts have doubts. 

"The US government currently has a major infrastructure program. Perhaps it is not the best strategy to offer Brazilian infrastructure assets to US investors at this time. The ideal would perhaps be to focus on investors from other regions," Paulo Dantas, an infrastructure and project finance specialist at Castro Barros Advogados law firm, told BNamericas.

UPCOMING CONCESSIONS 

The infrastructure ministry is planning to auction two road and nine port concessions this month and the next, the biggest one of which is the 15bn-real (US$2.74bn) concession for the Dutra highway, between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

The government wants to involve investment funds, similar to the sanitation segment, where this approach is seen as a success.