Market consultation on port privatisation

This work was completed as part of the GI Hub's Country Engagement Program with Brazil.

Summary

A goal of Brazil’s government is to increase total infrastructure investment through partnerships or privatisation. The government’s ambitious plan to boost the economy includes doubling investment in infrastructure to approximately US$65 billion per year by 2022. It is hoped that much of this new investment will come from foreign investors, and the government has focused efforts to attract foreign equity in ways that will put the country on a new path to growth. An example of this is the current port privatisation initiative of the Brazilian Government, which aims to unlock the value that the port sector can bring to the country.

To support Brazil in achieving these aims for the port privatisation program, the GI Hub partnered with Maritime & Transport Business Solutions (MTBS) and conducted a market sounding study and consultation. This work involved close collaboration with Brazil’s Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of Economy and the national development bank, Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES), which has ultimate responsibility for structuring the port privatisation.

By enabling Brazil's public authorities to cross-check the government's thinking with that of private sector specialists like contractors, lenders and equity investors, the market sounding study and consultation directly supported Brazil to achieve its objectives for the port and deliver valuable benefits for its citizens. These objectives included the capacity to test the private sector’s ability to assume risks related to the port privatisation contractual structure, gather feedback on how the project could be developed to ensure private sector participation and improve competition, and identify main discussion topics to address for a successful port privatisation.

Focus areas

The focuses of the port privatisation market sounding study and consultation were to:

Create structured dialogue between the private and the public sectors at early stages of the ports privatisation program
Provide the Brazilian Government with critical and valuable feedback on how aspects of the ports privatisation program should be defined
Improve uptake, participation and standardisation through information-sharing with key stakeholders
Promote optimal approaches and help build positive perceptions of the project at an early stage among potential investors.

Stakeholder engagement

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) was the key strategic partner in the market sounding report and consultation for the port privatisation project.

In addition, the GI Hub engaged with a number of other partners, including:

Government bodies

Brazil’s Ministry of Infrastructure
Brazil’s Ministry of Economy
Brazil’s Secretariat of Ports
BNDES

Brazil’s Port Authorities

Santos Port Authority
Espírito Santos Port Authority, CODESA
São Sebastião Port Authority
Itajaí Port Authority.

Private sector

The GI Hub held more than 50 stakeholder interviews with the private sector to inform the market sounding report, as shown in the diagram below.

Core activities

The GI Hub delivered the market sounding and consultation on port privatisation. This included completing all activities required to test the viability of the port privatisation program and ensured the ultimate program would attract bidders, and thus reach satisfactory closure. Specific activities included:

Consulting with government stakeholders to design a scope of work that met Brazil's needs
Creating a Project Information Memorandum with a summary representing the port assets under management by the Brazilian Government
Leading a public-private partnership workshop for a select group of government stakeholders, which provided context on global best practices for port and terminal privatisations and transactions
Delivering a report that identified project characteristics that are preferred by the private sector, in order to further enhance the scope of privatization
Delivering a final report that highlighted the methodology developed and described the results of the three stages of the consultation process, including recommendations to promote private sector participation and foster competition.