HBSA3 Hidrovias do Brasil

Hidrovias do Brasil S.A. is a Brazilian public company created in 2010 by Pátria Infraestrutura Fundo de Investimento em Participações Multiestratégia as a greenfield project focused on logistics infrastructure, with an emphasis on waterway solutions. Incorporated on August 18, 2010 and headquartered in the city of São Paulo, the company spent the following decade consolidating an integrated platform of transportation, terminals and port services aimed mainly at the flow of agricultural, mineral and pulp commodities in South America. The company’s shares are traded on B3 under the ticker HBSA3, positioning it in the Brazilian capital markets as one of the representatives of the transportation and logistics segment with intensive use of river transport. In 2024 and 2025, the ownership structure underwent a significant change, with Ultra Logística Ltda. initially acquiring a 40% stake and later surpassing 50% of the share capital after a capital increase approved in May 2025, consolidating control of Hidrovias do Brasil.

Hidrovias do Brasil’s business model is based on providing integrated logistics services, with an emphasis on long-distance waterway transport of bulk cargo, complemented by cabotage operations, port services, transshipment and storage. As of December 31, 2024, the company operated four port terminals with total loading capacity of 20.5 million tons per year, in addition to one cargo transshipment station. This infrastructure is supported by a large waterway fleet made up of hundreds of cargo barges, main and auxiliary pushers, and vessels used in coastal navigation. The company organizes its operations into segments that reflect its main logistics corridors: Northern Corridor, Southern Corridor, Cabotage (Coastal Navigation) and the Santos terminal, each with its own operational dynamics, asset base and customer portfolio, but complementary within the integrated transportation strategy.

Hidrovias do Brasil’s operating segments contribute differently to revenue generation. In 2024, the Northern Corridor accounted for around 63% of net service revenue, reflecting the importance of this route in moving grains and fertilizers between inland production areas and the Northern Arc export corridor. The Southern Corridor, based on the Paraguay-Paraná Waterway, accounted for approximately 14% of revenue, focused on transporting iron ore, grains, fertilizers and pulp between Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. The cabotage operation, carried out mainly with two vessels dedicated to transporting bauxite between Trombetas and Barcarena, represented around 17% of net revenue, while the STS-20 terminal at the Port of Santos, focused on fertilizers and salt, contributed about 10%. The company combines river transport services, elevation and port services, transshipment, backhaul cargo brokerage and cabotage, structuring contracts that often cover more than one stage of the logistics chain.

In the Northern Corridor, Hidrovias do Brasil operates an integrated system connecting the Miritituba Cargo Transshipment Station in Itaituba (state of Pará) to the Vila do Conde Private Use Terminal in Barcarena (state of Pará), both privately owned by the company. In this corridor, it provides transshipment services for solid bulk cargo in Miritituba, waterway transport using barge convoys and pushers, as well as port elevation services in Vila do Conde. The main cargoes handled are soybeans, corn and fertilizers, with the Barcarena terminal accounting in 2024 for more than 6 million tons exported of these products, representing a relevant share of total exports from the Northern region. The company also develops brokerage operations to optimize asset utilization, loading fertilizers on the return leg of barges that discharge grains, using third-party terminals in the return logistics.

The Southern Corridor is based on the Paraguay-Paraná Waterway, one of the largest navigable river systems in the world, and includes river transport operations on multiple routes between Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. In this corridor, Hidrovias do Brasil mainly transports iron ore from the Corumbá region (state of Mato Grosso do Sul) to ports in Argentina and Uruguay, as well as soybeans, corn, fertilizers and pulp. The company also holds minority interests in port and navigation assets in the region, such as a bulk terminal in Montevideo, a pulp shipping company in Uruguay and a bulk terminal in Concepción, Paraguay. The operation is underpinned by long-term contracts, such as the agreement signed for iron ore transportation on the Paraguay-Paraná Waterway, and is complemented by short-term contracts that capture additional volume opportunities. In the Southern Corridor, the company adjusts its fleet and convoy profile to hydrological and market conditions, seeking to maintain competitiveness in transporting large volumes.

Coastal Navigation, characterized as the cabotage segment, consists mainly of transporting bauxite between the Port of Trombetas and Barcarena, in the state of Pará, using two Brazilian-flag vessels specially designed for this route, which combines sea and river stretches. This operation is dedicated to a client in the alumina sector, which uses the transported bauxite as feedstock for one of the largest alumina refineries in the world, located in Barcarena. In parallel, the company also has capacity to provide solid bulk transportation between other Brazilian ports through chartered vessels, depending on demand. The STS-20 terminal at the Port of Santos (state of São Paulo), leased for 25 years and operational since 2020, is focused on the handling, storage and dispatch of fertilizers and salt, serving mainly industrial and agricultural areas in the Southeast and Center-West regions, with road integration and, as of 2024, also rail integration.

Hidrovias do Brasil’s client base is made up of large international and domestic groups in the grain trading, mining, fertilizer and pulp sectors. Major clients include LHG Mining Corumba S.A., subsidiaries of the COFCO group, Norsk Hydro ASA, Rumo S.A. and subsidiaries of the Sodrugestvo group, in addition to other relevant trading companies and industrial firms. The company structures a large portion of its contracts under a take-or-pay model, in which there is mutual commitment to capacity and minimum volume, providing greater revenue predictability and support for leveraging investments in long-lived assets. In 2024, two clients together accounted for just over 40% of net operating revenue, reflecting the importance of large-scale contracts in the Northern and Southern Corridors as well as in coastal bauxite navigation.

Hidrovias do Brasil’s operations are subject to a regulatory environment specific to waterway transportation and port infrastructure in Brazil. Inland navigation, cabotage and long-haul shipping are governed mainly by Law No. 9,432/1997, with regulation and oversight by the National Waterway Transportation Agency (Agência Nacional de Transportes Aquaviários – ANTAQ), an autonomous agency linked to the Ministry of Ports and Airports. The company needs authorizations, registrations and licenses to operate its navigation assets and terminals, as well as to maintain lease agreements and private use terminal contracts. Furthermore, because it operates on waterways that are sensitive to hydrological conditions, the company is exposed to climate and navigability risks, which are addressed in contractual clauses and mitigated through operational measures and risk management. The activities also involve environmental and safety obligations associated with bulk transportation and terminal operations, with insurance coverage for assets, vessels and cargoes under its custody.

In the capital markets context, Hidrovias do Brasil, through its HBSA3 shares traded on B3, offers direct exposure to waterway and port logistics infrastructure serving the commodities value chain in South America. The company combines capital-intensive assets with long-term contracts and operations in strategic export corridors, in a segment where the waterway modal tends to gain ground due to its relative costs and environmental impacts compared with road and rail transportation. Operational dynamics are influenced by factors such as agricultural harvests, demand for iron ore and fertilizers, climatic and hydrological conditions, as well as navigation and port regulation in the countries where it operates, mainly Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.