SAO PAULO (Reuters) – The federal government started on Wednesday the privatization of the country’s port sector and is targeting the auction of the Port of Santos, the largest in Latin America, for November, after a positive result obtained with the tender by Companhia Docas docks. Espírito Santo (Codesa), which operates the ports of Vitória and Barra do Riacho.
The Codesa auction, the first by a port operator in the country’s history and organized by BNDES, will serve as a basis for other privatizations that the government plans to carry out by the end of the year. In addition to Santos, the Ministry of Infrastructure’s agenda includes auctions for the ports of São Sebastião (SP) and Itajaí (SC) and Codeba, which manages the ports of Salvador, Ilhéus and Aratu, in Bahia. The privatization of the state-owned Bahia is scheduled for 2023.
“The Port of Santos is a priority and we are in a position to hold the auction in November,” said the Minister of Infrastructure, Tarcísio de Freitas, after the Codesa auction. The auction of the Espírito Santo company raised 106 million reais in grant and was won by a fund from Quadra Capital.
“Santos concluded the public consultation, São Sebastião also concluded and Itajaí is still under consultation…This means that they are all able to be auctioned this year”, said Freitas.
The privatization of Codesa was the last auction in which Freitas participated as minister. He will leave the portfolio to contest the election to the government of São Paulo and will be replaced by the current executive secretary, Marcelo Sampaio.
According to Sampaio, present at the Codesa auction, the privatization of the Espírito Santo company gave “peace to continue” with the concession model in the port sector.
Freitas said that his departure from the ministry will not bring changes to the portfolio’s projects, which face the seventh round of airports in 2022, which should have taken place at the beginning of the year, but was postponed after the government of Rio de Janeiro was against the inclusion of the Santos Dumont terminal in the bidding process.
“We have many things already advanced…There will be maintenance of the team in the ministry. Marcelo (Sampaio) has already talked to me about keeping the team”, said Freitas, adding that he will reinforce his agenda in São Paulo.
The expectation is that on Thursday morning there will be a farewell ceremony for the ministers of the government of Jair Bolsonaro who are leaving to contest elections. In the afternoon, the transfer of positions will take place.
CODESA AUCTION
The privatization of Codesa was completed after about an hour of hands-on bidding between Quadra’s fund, Shelf 119, and the Beira Mar consortium, formed by the Vinci Partners fund and the engineering firm Serveng Civilsan.
The minimum grant amount was 1 real and the bids started with an offer of 100 thousand reais by the Beira Mar consortium, while the Quadra fund made an initial proposal of 1,000 reais.
In addition to the grant amount to be paid in cash, the winner will have to buy Codesa shares for 326 million reais and transfer the equivalent of 7.5% of the company’s revenues during the 35 years of the concession agreement. The winner will also have to invest BRL 855 million throughout the contract.
Codesa’s 230 employees, after the concessionaire starts operating, will be guaranteed a year of job stability, officials said after the auction.
According to the public notice, Codesa had a profit of around 30 million reais in 2020, a company record. Net revenue fell by close to 5%, to 131 million reais. Cash generation measured by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was 50.8 million reais.
The president of Codesa, Antonio Julio Castiglioni Neto, said that the Port of Vitória currently charges about 2 reais of tonnage per gross weight for vessel access. With the auction model carried out, the tariff will decrease to 0.69 reais.
“This challenge, of investment obligations and lower tariff, will be equated with the capacity that the next port authority will have to undertake”, said Castiglioni Neto. He explained that in the case of the Port of Vitória, for example, the company could “occupy almost half of Codesa’s idle area, waiting for someone to arrive to do new business”.
The port of Vitória handled 6.95 million tons in 2020, the second largest volume of Codesa in 10 years and practically stable over 2019.
The government says that the Port of Vitória has the potential to double the movement of cargo to 14 million tons per year. The port has 500 thousand square meters of available area and 14 berths, most of which are operated by the port authority.
The port of Barra do Riacho handles 8 million tons per year, with 860 thousand square meters of available area, of which 522 thousand have not yet been explored. The port has two berths dedicated to handling liquid bulk.
(By Alberto Alerigi Jr., edited by Aluísio Alves)
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