Infrastructure finance: Brazil faces up to infrastructure gaps

When Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, first announced plans to construct the country's largest hydroelectric power hub, on the Madeira river, the environmentalists put a spanner in the works. Their primary concern was the dourada catfish that migrate up the river each year. B...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Euromoney 2008-03
Main Author: Hayward, Chloe
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bond markets
Capital markets
Commercial banks
Consortia
Construction contracts
Dams
Development banks
Energy industry
Engineering firms
Feasibility studies
Financing
Fund raising
Government contracts
Hydroelectric plants
Infrastructure
International
International finance
Mezzanine financing
Presidents
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Summary:When Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, first announced plans to construct the country's largest hydroelectric power hub, on the Madeira river, the environmentalists put a spanner in the works. Their primary concern was the dourada catfish that migrate up the river each year. But as the president vented his anger at how the catfish could scupper his plans, it was the financiers who put another catfish in the works. Where was the money going to come from to finance such a project? The Madeira river, in the northwest of Brazil, is in the early stages of becoming the largest infrastructure and energy project investment in the country. By 2013, the government hopes to have completed two hydroelectric plants, at Jirau and Santo Antonio, both sites on the river, which will produce up to 8% of the country's energy, or 7.5MW, more than three times the capacity of the Hoover Dam in the US. On December 10 2007, after five date changes, the auction for a 30-year concession for the Santo Antonio hydroelectric dam was won by the consortium Consorcio Madeira Energetica.
ISSN:0014-2433