Caixa will use funds from an agreement with French insurer CNP Assurances (the French company paid US$1.15 billion to sell insurance within branches of the state-owned bank) to strengthen its capital structure and increase its capacity to provide credit, said Souza.
The move is the first in a series of initiatives launched by the state-owned bank in recent years to raise funds with several of its assets and strengthen capital levels, which have been severely weakened in the wake of the failed federal government's campaign to use public banks to try to revive an economy on the track of recession.
Following the agreement with CNP Assurances, the state bank will resume the process of selling its arm of instant lotteries Lotex, which failed in July due to lack of stakeholders. For the business, the government expected a minimum bid of 1 billion reais (US$246m). "We are reshaping Lotex's business model to make it more attractive to investors and we will be back in 2018," Souza said. "There are interested."
After listening to the companies' reasons for not showing up at the bid deadline, and with the cancellation of MP 841 (which was replaced by MP 846), that generated so much insecurity in foreign companies, the Fiscal, Energy and Lottery Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance (SEFEL), the National Development Bank (BNDES), the Federal Audit Office (TCU) and the Investment Partnerships Program (PPI) think that it is time to move on with the privatization of Lotex.
The studies prepared by the BNDES, concluded in August last year, defined a minimum grant value of US$ 133 million. However, the Lotex auction was canceled because it did not receive any proposal from the international companies that had expressed interest.
SEFEL and the National Development Bank (BNDES) decided to continue with the privatization of the instant lottery and are already working on the preparation of new notices. Both organizations believe that this process can still be finalized in 2018 despite the October presidential election. Without a deadline, SEFEL and BNDES did not plan to set dates as there are several issues to be solved earlier.
The auction of the so-called "scratch card" has suffered several delays, changes in grant values and rules, generally with the objective of attracting a large foreign operator to operate in Brazil and compete in the lottery segment with Caixa, which was obliged to stay out of the auction.
Source: GMB
