Jan 21, 2021

 The Executive Board of the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) approved a financing for Eixo SP Concessionária de Rodovias S.A. to make investments planned for the first seven years of the concession of the Piracicaba-Panorama Lot (PiPa), the largest road lot ever conceded to the private sector in the country. The lot consists of 1,224 kilometers of highways that cross 62 municipalities in the state of São Paulo, between the region of Piracicaba and the extreme west of the state, on the border with the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The highway was auctioned a year ago by the São Paulo government.

BNDES’s support, R$ 3 billion, corresponds to 58% of the investments that PiPa will make in the first seven years, about R$ 5 billion. These resources will allow the duplication of lanes, construction and expansion of bridges and overpasses, and implementation of third and fourth lanes, side roads near towns and bicycle paths. They will also include the construction of user service posts (SAU), rest areas for truckers, tollbooths, checkpoints (PGF) and Military Highway Police stations, as well as the installation of traffic sensors, radars, electronic speed bumps and scales.

According to Leonardo Pereira, superintendent of BNDES’s Sanitation, Transportation and Logistics Area, “over the 30 years of the concession, about R$ 12 billion will be invested in construction and we expect more than 6,000 direct and indirect jobs to be created for the operation of the highway, in addition to almost 8,000 other direct and indirect jobs for the works of the first seven years.”

For Sérgio Santillan, CEO of Eixo SP, “BNDES’s support enables a project of this size to be made feasible, bringing enormous benefits to neighboring cities, the state and the country.”

The PiPa Lot consists of two road systems. The first comes from the former Centrovias, a stretch that comprises just over 200 km of the SP-225 and SP-310 highways – previously operated by Arteris and transferred to Eixo SP in June 2020 –, which has been charging tolls since 1998. The other system consists of stretches totaling about 1,000 kilometers, covering highways SP-191, SP-197, SP-261, SP-284, SP-293, SP-294, SP-304, SP-308, SP-331 and SP-425, which will be turned into toll roads in 2021.

The state of São Paulo held the auction of concession of the PiPa Lot in January 2020. In May, the contract was signed with Eixo SP, which started the operation in June

The concession holder – Eixo SP is a Special Purpose Company (SPE) incorporated in January last year for the exploration of PiPa. Its controlling interest belongs to Pátria Infraestrutura IV Fundo de Investimento em Participações Multiestratégia (Pátria – FIP IV), which holds 70% of the shares indirectly. The rest of the shares belong to NY Fundo de Investimento em Participações Multiestratégia (FIP – NY).

Pátria – FIP IV is a fund managed by Pátria Investimentos Ltda., an investment fund manager that has global operations and more than 30 years in the alternative asset management market. FIP-NY is controlled by GIC, a sovereign wealth fund of the Government of Singapore.

About BNDES – Founded in 1952 and currently linked to the Ministry of Economy, BNDES is the main instrument of the Federal Government to promote long-term investments in the Brazilian economy. BNDES’s actions focus on the socioenvironmental and economic impact in Brazil. BNDES offers special conditions for micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, as well as social investment lines, directed at education and health, family agriculture, sanitation and urban transport. In crisis situations, BNDES acts in an anticyclical manner and assists in the formulation of solutions for the resumption of economic growth.