New highway auction stirs up interest of large companies of the sector
DCI - 12/04/2007
Expected to be published in the beginning of 2008, the publication of the public bidding rules for the exploration of the West stretch of the Rodoanel and five other lots of state highways, among them Dom Pedro I, Airton Senna and Carvalho Pinto, promises to increase the dispute among the major players of this market, such as Companhia de Concessões Rodoviárias (CCR), OHL Brazil, and BR Vias. Odebrecht also does rule out the possibility of returning to the highway sector, while operating concessionaires, such as Autoban and Nova Dutra announce investments in infrastructure in order to guarantee the maintenance of their concessions. The second largest company in highways concessions in the Country, the Spanish OHL, which manages four concessionaires in the interior of São Paulo (Autovias, Centrovias, Intervias and Vianorte) confirms its interest in the dispute for the Rodoanel. OHL celebrates the recent acquisition of five lots in the auction of the federal highways, among them the stretches of Fernão Dias, Regis Bittencourt, and BR 101, in Rio de Janeiro. The subsidiary company in Brazil says it registered R$ 27.1 million (US$ 15.2 million) of net profit in the 3rd quarter of 2007 alone. CCR, on its turn, one of the largest private groups of highways concessions in Latin America, which includes in its shareholding structure companies such as Camargo Corrêa, Serveng Construtora, Andrade Gutierrez Concessões, and the Portuguese Brisa, says that it will go into the dispute of the public tender for the Rodoanel and for the São Paulo state highways. Brazilian leader in the segment of concessions and responsible for the AutoBAn, NovaDutra, ViaOeste, RodoNorte, Ponte Rio-Niterói and ViaLagos concessionaires, CCR is also responsible for ViaQuatro, the company that will operate and maintain the Linha 4 (4th line) of the Subway of São Paulo, in the next years. With new projects being studied, another company that will participate in the public bid for the Rodoanel is BR Vias, which is also interested in the public-private partnership (PPP) of Sabesp, the State owned utility that provides water and sewage services in the State of São Paulo.