Brazil auctions airports in promising start to privatizations

Brazil awarded three European groups Thursday the rights to operate four airports, drawing nearly double the minimum bids at an auction that underscored investors' appetite for a new wave of privatizations under President Michel Temer. German airport operator Fraport, French group Vinci and Zurich Airport bid a combined 1.46b reais ($470m) for the rights to run airports in Porto Alegre, Salvador, Fortaleza and Florianopolis. The companies committed to investing at least 6.61b reais in the airports and to paying the government an additional 2.26b reais in operating fees over the next 30 years. The privatizations will help Temer's government to narrow a budget deficit that topped 9 percent of gross domestic product last year and to spur the infrastructure investments that he is counting on to lift Brazil's economy from its worst recession in more than a century.<br/>