Odebrecht and a Dubai group purchase 51% of Embraport
Valor Econômico
The branch of investments of the building company Odebrecht officially closes today, in a partnership with the port operator Dubai Ports World (DPW), the purchase of the control of Embraport, the company responsible for one of the greatest multiuse terminals of the country, under construction on the left margin of the port of Santos. The new partners acquired, together, 51.5% of the interest in the undertaking. The value of the business has not been informed, but the work alone has an estimated cost of R$ 1 billion (US$ 540.5 million). Trading company Coimex, initially the owner of 100% of the business, will now have 15.2%. The other 33.33% were sold at the end of last year to the FGTS Investment Fund (FI-FGTS) by R$ 450 million (US$ 246 million).
The first stage of the operation of the terminal was expected for 2011, but it should be ready at the end of 2012, when it will have capacity to operate 1 million containers a year. In the second stage, in which the terminal will be fully operational - which is expected for 2014 -, it will have capacity for 1.5 million containers and 2 billion liters of alcohol.
Felipe Jens, in charge of the area of investments in infrastructure of Odebrecht, affirms he started evaluating the deal when Coimex placed its participation for sale, between June and July this year. Besides knowing the undertaking, the decision was influenced by the fact that Odebrecht has operations that may benefit from the new terminal for exportation, such as Braskem and ETH, a company for the production of alcohol launched two years ago. Until 2015 it should have the capacity to process 45 million tons of sugarcane and to produce more than 3 million liters of ethanol. The partners in the undertaking should release R$ 350 million (US$ 189.2 million) of its own resources in the work of the terminal, and another R$ 650 million (US$ 351.4 million) should come from a project finance line under negotiation with the IDB and the BNDES (National Development Bank).