Brazil remains the most liquid infrastructure market in Latin America, and in the past year, few banks harnessed that liquidity with more efficiency or breadth than Bradesco BBI.
That strategy paid off in a remarkable year. Bradesco, which wins Infrastructure Bank of the Year – Brazil, estimates it participated in around 120 infrastructure deals worth R$70 billion ($13 billion) during the awards period, covering every major sector of the economy—from energy and roads to sanitation, urban mobility, social housing and reforestation.
From highways and power plants to sanitation, social projects and digital assets, the bank has proven itself the indispensable financial partner for sponsors and investors navigating Brazil’s infrastructure buildout. By delivering record-setting financings and consistently shaping award-winning projects, it has reaffirmed its position as a leader in project finance.
According to Fernando Guimarães, head of Project Finance at Bradesco BBI, the surge in activity has been fueled by the steady pipeline of public concessions and by Brazil’s robust local capital markets. The issuance of incentivized debentures—offering tax breaks to investors and exclusively available for infrastructure projects—reached R$74.5 billion in the first half of 2025, up 15% year-on-year and surpassing the total issuance for all of 2023.
The bank distinguished itself through a series of landmark transactions that shaped Brazil’s infrastructure landscape in 2025. It acted as financial advisor and lead coordinator for Ecoriominas Concessionária de Rodovias, closing the largest highway financing in Brazil over the past year. It also advised EPR Litoral Pinheiro on the second-largest highway deal in the same period, and supported Ecorodovias Concessão e Serviços in making the highest concession auction payment of the year for the Ecovias Raposo Castello project.
The bank was equally prominent in the Paraná Highway Lot 6 concession, the largest road project by capex in recent memory, requiring nearly R$13 billion in investment. In another standout deal, Bradesco arranged nearly R$8 billion in long-term financing for Ecovias RioMinas, one of the year’s defining road concession projects.
Bradesco also played central roles in projects recognized with awards of their own. It advised EcoRodovias in securing R$8.5 billion ($1.5 billion) for a concession linking Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and arranged R$2.9 billion ($512 million) in debentures for UTE Portocem, an LNG-to-power complex in Ceará. Both transactions are LatinFinance award winners this year, amplifying the bank’s presence across categories.
Beyond roads and power, Bradesco structured financings for renewable generation and transmission, including Casa dos Ventos’ Serra do Tigre wind farm, hydro projects such as Rialma V, and solar assets from distributed generation to utility-scale. It also advised on financings in digital infrastructure, sanitation, logistics, and social projects such as the Hospital da Mulher. This breadth of activity underscored its ability to align capital with the most urgent needs of Brazilian development.
Bradesco’s market leadership is not only qualitative but also quantitative. The bank participated in more than 80 infrastructure debt transactions over the past 12 months, with volumes exceeding R$60 billion. Its activities spanned mining, power, sanitation, public mobility, waste logistics, vessels, and parks, confirming its reach across every layer of the Brazilian economy.
The bank’s dominance was reinforced by its performance in earlier award-winning projects, such as the São Paulo Metro Line 6, the Águas do Rio sanitation concession, and Scala Data Centers—a track record that demonstrates both staying power and continued innovation in structuring deals.
Looking ahead, Guimarães expects the pace to continue. He points to R$60 billion in planned energy transmission investments and R$85 billion in new road concessions, as well as emerging sectors like data centers, forecast to attract $15 billion over the next three to four years. “Our economics department estimates that interest rate cuts are about to start, and lower rates are positive for the infrastructure sector,” he notes.