São Paulo – The company KBW, owned by Saudis and based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, will own a 30% stake in a port terminal in the state of Espírito Santo. The Petrocity project is slated for completion in early 2016 and will offer all sorts of onshore and offshore oil exploration and production services, in a 1.5 million square metre area on the North coast of the state, in the municipality of São Mateus.
“It is a new, well-designed project,” said the Petrocity CEO José Roberto Barbosa da Silva, regarding the fact that the endeavour is attracting Arab and international capital. According to him, two years were spent showcasing the project to the market, including road shows in foreign countries. Apart from KBW’s 30% stake, Petrocity will have two other minority stakeholders in the financing and ports sectors. A consortium, Falcon, has been established for the venture, comprising Petrocity and French capital as well. The latter will have an option of holding a share in the terminal at the end of the work, according to Silva.
The venture is wholly private, and will be a sort of shopping centre for oil and gas. The terminal will see R$ 1 billion (US$ 444 million) in investment, according to the CEO. The amount may be as high as R$ 1.5 billion (US$ 666 million), factoring in investment by a naval repair company at the site. The company’s name will be announced in December, according to the executive. According to Silva, the investment is expected to pay itself back in five years, after which net income should match the amount invested.
The project is entirely sustainability-oriented, and includes measures designed to facilitate fish reproduction and onsite biologists to monitor processes. The endeavour will also work as a school-port where students from six different courses at Universidade Vila Velha will engage in activities at the facility.
According to the Petrocity CEO, the terminal’s sustainability, the partnership with the university to train labour force, the expectancy of good returns, the possibility of offshore and onshore operations (both activities take place in the area), and the partnership with the Espírito Santo state government (the project is located in an area owned by the Superintendence for the Development of the Northeast – Sudene) are some of the factors that have attracted the interest of foreign investors.
The terminal will be completed in slightly over two years, but possibly, in a second phase, after 2016, it will also be active in oil tanking in the four municipalities that comprise the local oil square: São Mateus, Conceição da Barra, Jaguaré and Linhares.
KBW
The chairman and majority stakeholder in KBW is the Saudi prince Khaled Bin Alwaleed. Last week, during a visit to Brazil, he announced the setting up of a base in Brazil’s Santa Catarina state. The central office will keep track of the projects in which the company invests in Brazil, including the port terminal in Espírito Santo. KBW is a proprietary company focusing on long-term investment. Khaled is son to prince Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the foremost individual investors in the planet.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
