Raposo Tavares Highway

active

Concessionaria Auto Raposo Tavares (CART) was awarded the project to expand, rehabilitate and operate the 444-km long toll road in October 2008 and took over the operation of the highway in March 2009, when the 30-year concession contract was signed. The contract was granted in a competitive bidding process based on the lowest toll rate criteria: the winning bid was 16.11% below the ceiling established by the government, while the bidding offered by the Brazilian company Triunfo Participacoes e Investiment was 0.71% below the ceiling. The concessionaire agreed to maintain 393 km of feeder roads in which no toll rate was to be charged to the users. By the time the contract was signed, the roadway connected the cities of Presidente Epitacio and Ourinhos (SP-270), Ourinhos and Espirito Santo do Turvo (SP-327), and Espirito Santo do Turvo and Bauru (SP-325). The Raposo Tavares Highway is located in the western region of Sao Paulo state and serves around 1.2 million people. The bidding process for the second stage of the Sao Paulo state toll road concession program took place between October 2008 and early 2009 and the five awarded projects comprised the operation of 1715 km of highways in total. Altogether, the concessionaires committed to the duplication of 359 km, 526 km of additional tracks and new shoulders, besides the construction or expansion of access roadways, 317 bridges and viaducts and over 65 new pedestrians crossing bridges. The works were expected to benefit 171 municipalities with a total of 21 million inhabitants. The concessionaires also committed to maintaining 900 km of local toll free roadways. When the contract was signed, CART had as shareholders the Brazilian companies Invepar Investmento e Participações (32%) and Construtora OAS (68%); Invepar, in turn, was owned by the Brazilian pension fund Previ (83%) and OAS Construtora (17%). The private sponsors committed to pay US$ 342 million (BRL 684 million) to the government for the concession rights (20% of this value was paid when the contract was signed and the rest was agreed to be paid in 18 monthly installments) and was expected to invest US$ 700 million (BRL 1,400 million) during the first five years of the concession period. The total investment commitment during the 30-year contract was estimated at US$ 900 million (BRL 1,800 million). In March 2009, CART raised BRL 370 million in external resources to fund the investment in infrastructure (the bond was issued by Banco do Nordeste and Santander Bank. In February 2011, BNDES granted a US$ 644.6 million (BRL 1.1 billion) to CART to finance the company's expansion and maintenance costs. Source of information: private company and sponsors' websites, BNB Bank, ABCR, news outlets.