2015: BNDES will allocate R$ 60 billion for infrastructure.
The level is similar to that of 2014; the volume of resources considers not only the energy and logistics segments, but also urban mobility, sanitation, and part of the Finame loan line for the acquisition of machinery, locomotives, wagons, and electrical equipment, included in infrastructure; total resources to be released by BNDES in 2015 should reach R$ 170 billion.
Alana Gandra, Reporter for Agência Brasil - The value of disbursements from the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) to the infrastructure sector, involving direct, indirect and automatic operations, should remain around R$ 60 billion this year, a level similar to that of 2014. The superintendent of the bank's Infrastructure Area, Nelson Siffert, said today (8) at the congress of the Brazilian Association of Private Equity and Venture Capital (Abvcap), in Rio de Janeiro, that this volume of resources considers not only the energy and logistics segments, but also urban mobility, sanitation and part of the Finame (Financing of Machinery and Equipment) loan line, for the acquisition of machinery, locomotives, wagons, electrical material, included in infrastructure.
The total resources to be released by BNDES in 2015 are expected to reach R$ 170 billion, showing a decrease compared to the total released in 2014, which reached R$ 187,8 billion. "So, you have the prospect of infrastructure accounting for just over 40% of the bank's overall budget," he explained.
The idea, said Siffert, is for BNDES to not depend on financial support from the National Treasury and to stimulate a growing participation of the capital market in financing the productive sector, through the issuance of debentures. "Therefore, since BNDES does not have a budget that can grow elastically, it is fundamental that the capital market joins the bank's effort to finance infrastructure." The superintendent believes that debentures will play a more relevant role in financing not only infrastructure, but also the economy as a whole.
In the first quarter of this year, disbursements for energy and logistics, within infrastructure, grew by 10% compared to the same period last year, "which is in line with our annual projection of also growing by around 10%".
Nelson Siffert emphasized that the BNDES's financial area is working to balance funding (sources of resources for loans) so as not to resort to Treasury borrowing. He believes that the capital market will join BNDES in addressing "any funding gap that projects may require." He considered this feasible, despite the Selic basic interest rate being at a high level and projected to increase. "The Selic rate is projected to be high, but in the medium term, the trend is downward."
He pointed out that infrastructure investors look at projects with a medium- to long-term perspective, and that debenture issuance can occur at various stages of a project. In recent years, infrastructure debenture issuance operations have been carried out in 32 projects, totaling over R$ 8 billion raised by the market, of which BNDES purchased R$ 1 billion.
Nelson Siffert said that the bank intends to launch a fund backed by these debentures on the market later this year. To coordinate and structure the public offering of investment fund quotas backed by infrastructure debentures from the BNDES portfolio, a consortium composed of Bradesco BBI and BTG Pactual banks was selected. The management and administration of the fund will be the responsibility of Caixa Econômica Federal, which is also part of the consortium. "The idea is to attract this private savings to provide funding for infrastructure projects."
BNDES's infrastructure portfolio currently includes 399 projects, with financing totaling R$ 199,6 billion, representing investments of R$ 362 billion.