Precatorios: impasse harms company financing – 06/12/2023 – Panel SA

Concessionaires interested in using precatorios as a bargaining chip in business with the Union claim that the impasse in the government over the use of these bonds is reducing the loan amounts they seek from banks to finance investments.

Precatorios are Union debt securities with final court rulings.

Privately, they complain that there is already a situation of legal uncertainty created by the government, which released the use for some concessionaires and not for others.

Anac (National Civil Aviation Agency), for example, released, with reservations, SPE Novo Norte to operate the airports of Belém (PA) and Macapá (AP), but did not endorse other companies, such as Congonhas.

At the end of May, the agency gave effect to the Novo Norte concession contracts, but without guaranteeing discharge (final acceptance) of the R$ 18 million in writs given to the government in payment.

“It must provide for the definitive transfer of the executive title to the treasury”, wrote the manager of Airport Infrastructure Grants, Jacqueline de Azevedo Silva, in a letter to the National Secretariat of Civil Aviation.

The Spanish company Aena, which won the block of airports led by Congonhas, withdrew from using precatorios before an Anac response.

In order to make his contract effective, he opted to pay half of the BRL 2.45 billion of his commitment to the government in cash.

In railways, Rumo went to court against the decision of ANTT (National Land Transport Agency) that did not accept precatories in payment.

On the highways, groups interested in winning the next concessions are also concerned. They want to use the titles, but they still think the deadlock will last longer.

The AGU (Attorney General of the Union) said it would hold a public consultation, but nothing has been scheduled so far. Until then, the suspension of the use of these papers in concessions is still valid.

For companies, precatorios mean a chance for savings. There is a market for the purchase and sale of these securities promoted by banks and investment funds that trade these securities on the market with discounts ranging from 50% to 70%.

In the case of Aena, half of the amount to be paid to Anac —R$ 1.2 billion— was purchased on the market with 62% discounts. That is: instead of paying the full amount, the company disbursed much less.

This difference represents a break in cash that allows companies to take on greater credit — which is not happening due to the impasse surrounding precatorios, according to concessionaires.

In a note, Anac informed that the AGU approved the precatories of the Novo Norte consortium before suspending the receipt of grants with these credits. In the case of Congonhas, according to the agency, Aena chose not to wait for a definition from the AGU and paid the amount owed in cash.

The use of precatorios as currency was approved as an alternative to reduce the Union’s growing liabilities of judicial debts. The government has had very little capacity to reduce this stock with Union resources.

As the column showed, the Treasury paid until April only a third of what was forecast. According to the Budget Execution Report of the Ministry of Finance, the government should transfer R$ 24 billion throughout the year (R$ 2 billion, on average, per month). However, until April R$ 2 billion were paid in total – R$ 500 million on average per month.

With Diego Felix

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