The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), the financing agent to promote long-term investments in Brazil, today announced the launch of its Investors Network (Rede de Investidores), which forms part of BNDES’ Projects Hub, a central location where the organization presents investment opportunities in infrastructure projects and privatizations structured by BNDES. For example, two of BNDES’ digital infrastructure investment opportunities, Dataprev and Serpro, own data centers as part of their business.
Overall, the Investors Network facilitates communication between prospective local and international investors, who are interested in the BNDES portfolio. Importantly, this communication can take place in private, free of charge, and without intermediaries, through the Investors Network.
BNDES – Projects Hub – Overview
BNDES’ goal, with the Investors Network and Projects Hub, is to foster partnerships in order to attract new investors to Brazil. Beyond investors, the website (link) simplifies making contacts between lawyers, consultants, engineers, governments, amongst other interested parties.
Presently, BNDES holds Brazil’s largest portfolio of opportunities for infrastructure concessions, public-private partnerships (PPPs), and privatizations. Indeed, there are 120 projects and R$260bn ($49bn USD) in investment opportunities.
BNDES’ portfolio, via the Projects Hub, includes infrastructure projects in the sectors of digital (categorized as technology), education, forestry, health, sanitation, ports, street lighting, and highways, amongst others.
Data Centers – Digital Infrastructure – BNDES
Below we highlight select projects from BNDES’ Projects Hub which include digital infrastructure assets. Specifically, these projects are Dataprev and Serpro, which own assets within the sub-sector of data centers.
Dataprev
Dataprev is responsible for the administration of Brazil’s social database, particularly for the National Institute of Social Security (INSS). Also, the company provides solutions for processing various rights of the population, such as retirement, sick pay, and unemployment insurance.
Dataprev owns three data centers, located in Brasília (Federal District), Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo. Because of the criticality of the information that Dataprev hosts, the data centers have important design and facility certifications.
In 2019, Dataprev had 3.4k employees, net revenue of R$1.3bn ($245m USD), and net income of R$147m ($28m USD). Finally, BNDES notes, via the Projects Hub, that the auction of the Dataprev business will take place in Q3 2022.
Serpro
Serpro is a key provider of technological solutions for the Brazilian State, developing strategic and public interest systems. Specifically, these systems are used for i) income tax return, ii) electronic invoice, and iii) issuing passports, amongst others.
Serpro owns network infrastructure throughout Brazil, including three data centers in Brasília (Federal District), Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo.
In April 2020, the company had 9.0k employees. Further, in 2019, Serpro generated net revenue of R$2.8bn ($529m USD) and a net income of R$486m ($92m USD). Finally, BNDES notes, via the Projects Hub, that the auction of the Serpro business will take place in Q3 2022.
