Spotlight: Brazil's tender schedule for March

Brazil's tender schedule for March involves offering six contracts at a time when federal and state governments are striving to attract more competition for concessions and PPPs.

The project pipeline for this month includes contracts for irrigation, streetlighting, water and waste management, and power transmission.

"The recent auctions in Brazil witnessed tepid competition and few offerings. To enhance future auctions, it is imperative to intensify dialogue with market participants both domestically and internationally to attract more interested parties," Rafael Benini, head of the São Paulo state office responsible for organizing privatizations, concessions and PPPs, told BNamericas.

The most significant auction anticipated for the month is a power transmission tender to be offered by the federal government in 15 lots across 14 states, with total capex of 18.2bn reais (US$3.7bn) and scheduled for March 28.

Five of the six contracts, which involve concessions and PPPs, will be offered on São Paulo's B3 stock exchange, while one has already been auctioned.

IRRIGATION AND STREETLIGHTING

The Jequitai consortium, comprising local companies Fortaleza de Santa Teresinha Agricultura e Pecuária and RG, represented by the accredited participant Planner, was the sole bidder in an auction held on March 1 for the 1.5bn-real Vale do Rio Jequitaí irrigation project in Minas Gerais state. The consortium offered a fee of 35mn reais for the contract.

Meanwhile, three streetlighting PPPs will be offered this month. One will be tendered on March 7 for the city of Ariquemes in Rondônia state. On the same day, a single PPP contract involving two cities in Bahia state, Guanambi and Lagoa Real, will also be offered.

The third streetlighting PPP contract involves the city of Camaçari, also in Bahia, which is scheduled for March 25.

Streetlighting PPPs have proliferated across Brazil in recent years as municipalities view them as a means of reducing costs. The structuring of PPP contracts is supported by state-run banks BNDES and Caixa Econômica Federal, bolstering confidence in the model.

WATER & WASTE

Ourinhos, a city in São Paulo state, will offer a concession for water and waste services in an auction on March 20. All documents related to the tender can be found here, in Portuguese.

In a recent interview with BNamericas, Paulo Roberto de Oliveira, CEO of Brazilian water firm GS Inima, part of the South Korean conglomerate GS E&C, stated that the firm will look at participating in the auction for the water and sanitation contract.