HispanicBusiness

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL -- (Marketwire) -- 01/23/13 -- MetraTech, the leading provider of agreements-based billing (ABB™) and compensation solutions, announced the deployment of its MetraNet® billing platform at São Paulo International Airport in Guarulhos, Brazil. MetraTech was selected in August by GRU Airport's new concessionaire as the billing platform for the airport and the system went live on November 15th, just in time to handle a new single-day passenger record on the eve of a long weekend with a national holiday and the Brazilian F1 Grand Prix.

Investments in Brazil's airports have struggled to keep pace with air travel that has doubled in the past decade as Latin America's fastest growing economy has risen. In preparation for an expected influx of more than 500,000 visitors during the month long World Cup 2014 soccer tournament and Summer Olympics in 2016, the Brazilian Government determined that private sector involvement would accelerate the necessary investments to the airports. In the resulting auction in February 2012, management of Guarulhos, Latin America's busiest airport, was awarded to the Invepar-ACSA Consortium.

The Invepar-ACSA consortium is led by Invepar - Investimentos e Participações em Infraestrutura SA, which owns 90 percent of the consortium and belongs to employee pension funds from companies including banks Banco do Brasil and Caixa Econômica Federal, as well as oil company Petrobras - Petróleo Brasileiro SA and OAS Investimentos. ACSA - Airport Company South Africa owns 10 percent of the consortium.

With a winning bid of 16.2 billion reais ($7.8 billion USD) Invepar-ACSA consortium won the rights to operate São Paulo's international hub for 20 years. The Brazilian government raised a total of 24.5 billion reais ($14 billion USD) through the award of licenses to private companies to operate three of the country's busiest airports, aimed at having the facilities upgraded and ready for the World Cup, and the 2016 Olympic Games swiftly thereafter.

On June 14th of 2012 a 20-year concession contract was signed between Invepar-ACSA consortium and the Brazilian Government, giving rise to the Guarulhos International Airport Concessionaire, in which Invepar-ACSA has 51 percent participation and Infraero (Airport Infrastructure Brazilian Company) has 49 percent participation.

After its winning bid, it was important for the new GRU operator to begin collecting revenue and rolling out new services at GRU. The Brazilian civil aviation regulatory agency, ANAC, officially certified the MetraNet solution for airport billing and Invepar-ACSA obtained permission to transition operations and administration from Infraero to the new GRU Airport Concessionaire.