BNDES predicts bankruptcy or sale of companies affected by Lava Jato.

247 - The legal director of BNDES, Marcelo de Siqueira Freitas, gave the most stark account of the impact of Lava Jato on the infrastructure sector.

According to him, projects linked to companies like Odebrecht, Andrade Gutierrez, UTC, and Camargo Corrêa will have to be sold – or the companies will go bankrupt.

"Infrastructure concessionaires controlled by construction companies involved in Operation Lava Jato will have to be sold or they will face bankruptcy. According to the legal director of the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), Marcelo de Siqueira Freitas, with the current partners these companies will not have access to long-term financing and are likely to fail," he points out. Report by journalist Murillo Camarotto, published in Valor Econômico.

"Highways to be duplicated, airports to be built, and unfinished subway lines are the most blatant examples we have today at BNDES. And it's very clear: if control isn't transferred to some other company, we won't be able to finance these projects, private institutions won't finance them either, and these projects will die. Then it's either judicial reorganization or bankruptcy," said Freitas.

According to him, BNDES closed the door to these companies. "They pass the registration phase, but they get stuck in the credit phase," Freitas explained. "For the bank, this is credit risk. I don't know if you might be called upon to dispose of other assets that make it difficult to repay the transaction. Given this uncertainty related to quantifying the damage, the bank closes the door to credit," he added.