BNDES Sets Terms for Jirau Financing

Brazil’s BNDES state development bank has set terms on its involvement in the financing of the Jirau hydroelectric project. Pricing on the up to 25-year loan will be TJLP plus a spread of 46bp-254bp, plus a BNDES financing spread of 50bp. The TJLP was at 6.25% yesterday. The bank will limit its total indirect and direct participation to 75% of the project’s total cost. The 3.3GW project on the Rio Madeira in Rondonia will go out to bid May 12 and was expected to cost more than BRL9bn. The government has said bidders will have to sell most of the electric power from the project at a maximum of BRL91 per MWh. CPFL and Cemig have declared their intentions to bid. In October, an Odebrecht-led consortium won an auction for the sister Santo Antonio hydroelectric project, offering BRL78.87 per MWh.