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Brazilian toll road operator Invepar won today Friday a 30-year concession to upgrade and operate a stretch of a highway linking the capital Brasilia to the port of Rio de Janeiro. The highway auctioned is a 937-kilometer stretch of Brazil's BR-040 highway between Brasilia and Juiz de Fora on the border of Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro states.

Invepar is expected to invest R$4.45 billion (around US$2 billion) in BR-040 over the first five years of the concession. Invepar will duplicate 557 Km of road during the first five years.

Invepar gathers OAS investments in transport infrastructure concessions, with a focus on highways, subways, urban roads and airports, both in Brazil and abroad. In addition to OAS, the Previ (Banco do Brasil's Employee Welfare Fund), Petros (Petrobras' Social Security Fundation) and Funcef (Federal Foundation of Caixa Econômica's Employees) are Invepar's shareholders.

Price discounts 

Invepar won the auction by offering to charge 61 % less than the maximum toll allowed by the government. The discount to the ceiling price offered by Invepar was the highest in the five road concessions auctioned in 2013:

• CCR offered to charge 50 % of the ceiling price  for the BR-163/MS highway concession;
• Odebrecht won the auction for the BR-163/MT road concession with a 52 % discount;
• Triunfo Participações e Investimentos (TPI) won the auction for the concession of federal highways BR-060, BR-153 and BR-262 with a discount of 52 % as well.
• Consorcio do Planalto won the tender process for the BR-050 highway concession linking Goias to Minas Gerais with a 42.38% discount.

Bids submitted

Brazil's ANTT received eight proposals for the concession in an auction that took place today, 27 December 2013, in Sao Paulo:

• Consórcio Via Capital - Ecorodovias Infraestrutura e Logística s.a., Coimex Empreedimentos e Participações Ltda.,  Rio Novo Locações Ltda; Tervap Pitanga Mineração e Pavimentação Ltda; Contek Engenharia S.A.; A. Madeira Indústria e Comércio Ltda; Urbesa Administração Ltda. - Discount: 44,63%

• Companhia de Participações em Concessões (CPC/CCR) - Discount: 15,22%

• Investimentos e Participações em Infraestrutura S. A. (Invepar) - Discount: 61,13%

• TPI - Triunfo Participações e Investimentos S.A. - Discount: 9,98%

• Consórcio Queiroz Galvão Infraestrutura - Queiroz Galvão Desenvolvimento de Negócios S/A; Construtora Queiroz Galvão S/A - Discount: 4,99%

• Consórcio Caminho Novo - Encalso Construções Ltda; Camter Construções e Empreendimentos S/A; Infravix participações S/A; Conter Construções e Comércio S/A; Firpavi Construtora e Pavimentadora S/A - Discount: 23,99%

• Consórcio Integração - Fidens Engenharia S.A.; Construtora Aterpa M. Martins S.A.; Construtora Barbosa Mello S.A.; Carioca Christiani-Nielsen Engenharia S.A. - Discount: 29,29%

• Contern Construções e Comércio Ltda. - Discount: 42,90%

The concession is part of a plan to upgrade 5,176 kilometers of mostly two-lane highways into four-lane divided highways within five years. The plan aims to attract 27 billion reais ($11.4 billion) in investments over five years.