End of the 6×1 scale may force highway, airport and sanitation concessions to review contracts
For lawyer Augusto Dal Pozzo, each concession will have to prove the impact of shorter working hours on costs, and regulatory agencies will need to define the rules.
BY THE X-TRADER NEWS NEWSROOM · REPORTING FROM TIMES BRASIL · 2 MIN
According to Times Brasil, the reduction in working hours from 44 to 40 hours per week, scheduled until December 2027, also affects infrastructure concessions. For lawyer Augusto Dal Pozzo, a specialist in the sector, the topic requires a contract-by-contract review, and not a single solution for all cases.
Dal Pozzo spoke about the subject on the Capital Infra panel, on Monday (2). According to the report, the debate affects highways, airports and sanitation. The central thesis is that concessionaires will have to prove the impact of the new rule on their own costs before making any adjustments.
The stakes are broad. According to Times Brasil, the discussion involves operational costs, the economic balance of current contracts, tariffs and the country's ability to attract investment. When a labor change alters the operating cost, the effect is not restricted to the company's balance sheet: it can affect the tariff, the contract and the investor's appetite.
The title of the report points to the contractual amendment as a path forward. This means that adaptation should not be automatic, but rather negotiated in each contract. The design gives predictability to those who invest, but demands discipline from everyone: the concessionaire needs to demonstrate the cost, and regulatory agencies will still have to define how to deal with the issue.
In this newspaper's view, contractual balance is the basis of any concession. Costs that arise after signing must be absorbed with technical criteria and transparency, without silently transferring the account to the user and without creating legal uncertainty. Fiscal responsibility and regulatory predictability apply to both the government and the company.
What changes for the investor
The most immediate scenario is a period of negotiation, with an effect on the concessionaires' results as each contract is adjusted. If the additional cost is proven and not passed on to tariffs, these companies' margins could come under pressure. If there is contractual rebalancing, the impact tends to be smaller. The report does not provide values or list affected companies, so the size of the effect remains undefined. The points to monitor are the definition of regulatory agencies, the text of the amendments and the evolution of tariffs. This article is not a recommendation to buy or sell and does not project stock prices.
Automatically translated from Portuguese.
