The asset sale is part of its strategy to reduce debt and concentrate on the highway segment.

CAMARGO CORREA LENIENCY AGREEMENT

Conglomerate Camargo Corrêa this week agreed to pay nearly 1.4bn reais as part of a leniency agreement with the comptroller general (CGU) and the attorney general (AGU).

“During the negotiations, the company collaborated with information and evidence of illicit acts committed by various individuals and legal entities,” said AGU.

Camargo Corrêa had already signed a leniency agreement with prosecutors in 2015 and the latest accord puts an end to a major headache for the group.

The conglomerate was one of various companies involved in corruption uncovered by the Lava Jato probe.

“The total of 1.4bn reais set forth in the leniency agreement of CGU and AGU, calculated in a detailed and technical manner, includes part of the amounts in the agreement entered into by the company with the federal prosecutor's office,” AGU said.

BRAZIL-PARAGUAY BRIDGE

After a week marked by controversy over an agreement on power supply from the giant Itaipu hydroelectric plant, which is shared by Paraguay and Brazil, a bridge linking the two nations is likely to advance.

On Thursday, the government of southern state Paraná and Itaipu Binacional, the plant's operator, took the latest step towards the start of construction of the bridge, which will be the second connecting the two countries.

The road bridge over the Paraná river will be between Foz do Iguaçu in Paraná state and the Paraguayan city of Presidente Franco. Work is expected to take 36 months and can start immediately.

The bridge and an access road will be financed by Itaipu and cost an estimated 463mn reais. (US$121mn). The project will be overseen by the Paraná government.

“The budget is already organized, consolidating the partnership with Itaipu in the infrastructure area. It will be the largest free-span bridge in Brazil,” said Paraná governor Carlos Massa Ratinho Júnior.

The current bridge linking the two countries is known as the Friendship Bridge and crosses the Paraná river between Foz do Iguaçu and Paraguay's Ciudad del Este.

A third bridge also likely to be constructed, crossing the Paraguay river between Porto Murtinho in Brazil's Mato Grosso do Sul state and Carmelo Peralta in Paraguay.