London 2012 firms in talks over Rio Olympics work

UK contractors and consultants involved in the 2012 Olympics have been given the chance to pitch to the five biggest Brazilian construction firms for work on the Rio 2016 Games, in high-level meetings in London this week.

The contractors, designers and engineers working on the Olympic stadium, velodrome and basketball arena were all given the chance to meet the Brazilian delegation, as well as firms involved in the Olympics delivery partner CLM and masterplanner Edaw.

Other firms with Olympics 2012 experience, such as Davis Langdon, Arup and Atkins, were also involved in the talks, which have been organised by UK Trade and Investment (UKTI).

Representatives from Brazilian construction giants OAS, Odebrecht, Andrade Gutierrez, Carioca Christiani-Nielsen Engenharia and Concremat, all travelled to London for the talks.

Andrew Bacchus, head of UKTI’s construction and global sports projects team, said the mission was designed both to allow the Brazilian firms to learn from innovations made in delivering a “world-class, low carbon” sporting event, and also to allow UK firms a chance to pitch for contracts for Rio 2016.

He said: “The secondary objective is to get in front of the companies who will be picking up the big contracts for 2016, to help UK firms who want to be part of consortiums being put together, or part of these big firms’ supply chains.

“These [Brazilian] firms are all heavily involved in construction for the World Cup and all the big building contracts in Rio.”

Rio de Janeiro has a $14bn (£8.6bn) investment programme to build the 2016 Games. Brazil’s total infrastructure investment programme is worth £350bn, and UK firms have been scrambling to take advantage.