Brazil airports: fifth concession tranche completed at a premium

When it started with the concession on the greenfield airport Natal, São Gonçalo do Amarante, in 2011 – which was won by Brazilian and Argentinean companies – could anyone have imagined just how big the Brazilian airport privatisation procedure had become, subsequently attracting big international hitters such as Changi Airports, Flughafen Zurich, Fraport and Vinci Airports?

The latest tranche, or round, of these concessions has just been completed; smaller airports that, although ‘anchored’ on a bigger one, have in the main far less attraction than the São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and Belo Horizonte airports that went before.

Nevertheless, they attracted bids hugely in excess of the minimum required, even more than in previous tranches in some cases, justifying the new Brazilian President’s cross-sector privatisation strategy, though what the future will actually hold for the concessionaires in a country still suffering from recession and stagflation, remains to be seen.

But the government is so confident that it is already pressing ahead with the next round.