Fabio Falkenburger, Marina Estrella, Pedro Amim, Vitor Barbosa and Julia Souza Torres
Immediately after approval by the Federal Court of Auditors (TCU), the National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac) published, on June 6, the the notice to bid and concession agreement of the 7th round of airport concession, in addition to scheduling the public auction for August 18.
Clarifications about the documents may be requested from June 8 to 27, through an electronic form provided by Anac.
15 airports shall be conceded in three different blocks. The highlight is the Block SP/MS/PA/MG, which contains Congonhas Airport. Pursuant to Anac newsletter, the airports to be granted in the 7th round correspond to 15.8% of the domestic movement of passengers. The format of the concession of airports in three blocks and their minimum initial contributions and estimated values of contracts are:
- The General Aviation Block will be composed of the airports of Campo de Marte/SP and Jacarepaguá/RJ. The minimum bid (initial contribution) is R$ 141.4 million and the estimated value for the contract is R$ 1.7 billion.
- Block Norte II will be composed of the airports of Belém/PA and Macapá/AP. The minimum bid (initial contribution) is R$ 56.9 million and the estimated value for the entire contract is R$ 1.9 billion.
- The BLOCK SP/MS/PA/MG will be composed of Congonhas/SP, Campo Grande/MS, Ponta Porã/MS, Corumbá/MS, Santarém/PA, Marabá/PA, Parauapebas/PA, Altamira/PA, Montes Claros/MG, Uberlândia/MG and Uberaba/MG. The minimum bid (initial contribution) is R$ 740.1 million and the estimated value for the entire contract is R$ 11.6 billion.
The concession term will be of 30 years for all blocks. Extensions will only be admitted in extraordinary situations and for only another five years.
The notice to bit allows the participation of Brazilian or foreign legal entities, supplementary pension entities and investment funds, alone or in consortium. However, it does not allow the participation of a legal entity or its subsidiaries and controllers in more than one consortium to submit a proposal for the same block. Furthermore, airlines companies will not be allowed to participate in the concession, except as consortium members with less than 2%, considering the sum of their holdings.
As in the other rounds of airport concessions, the notice requires that the participant bidding alone or, if in a consortium, one of the members of this, is an airport operator that has operated an airport with the following minimum movements, in at least one of the last five years:
- For the General Aviation Block, 200,000 passengers or, alternatively, 17,000 aircraft movements (landings and takeoffs).
- To Block North II, 1 million passengers.
- For Block SP/MS/PA/MG, 5 million passengers.
As in the previous round, it shall be allowed to hire a technical assistant if the winning bidder does not meet the technical qualifications (airport operation qualification) required by ANAC. In other words, it will be possible to fill the qualifications requirements with the hiring of an airport operator to assist in the operational management of the block. To do so, it will be necessary to present a commitment to contract such a technical assistance, which shall be presented among the bidding documents. The technical assistant must meet the criterion of movement of passengers and aircraft listed above.
Originally Santos Dumont/RJ airport would be granted in the 7th concession round, however, amid political controversies and reformulations in the configuration of the concession, the airport will be conceded in the 8th round, scheduled for 2023, in the same block of Galeão /RJ airport.
Despite the absence of one of the ‘crown jewels’, the news of the confirmation of the 7th round is received by the market with much relief and enthusiasm. After all, the pace of concessions is maintained in a key segment for the recovery of the aviation sector, which seeks to reach pre-pandemic operating levels. Congonhas' presence in the package raises expectations around the round, which is likely to have fierce competition and generate high revenue for the government.
