RIO DE JANEIRO (Dow Jones)--Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht is interested in bidding for airport concessions in Brazil, but is waiting to see more details of the government's plans, the group's investment director, Felipe Jens, said Thursday.

The Odebrecht group is one of the largest industrial conglomerates in Brazil, with expertise in construction, petrochemicals and real estate. In recent years it has moved into managing concessions across a wide range of industries, from electric power and subways to oil and gas exploration.

Each airport is likely to be a very different case, and the services offered out to the private sector may also be different, Jens told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.

Earlier this week, the federal government, which owns and operates Brazil's major airports, said it will hand over the country's five largest airports to the private sector, starting with airports in Sao Paulo and Brasilia, to be followed by Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte.

The operations and expansion of Brazilian airports have become a key issue in the run-up to the 2014 soccer World Cup, spread among 12 Brazilian cities, and the 2016 Olympic Games, to be held in Rio de Janeiro. There are growing concerns that the airport infrastructure won't be ready to deal with the expected influx of visitors.

Rio state Gov. Sergio Cabral on Thursday said major international airport operators, including Germany's Fraport AG (FRA.XE) and Spain's Ferrovial SA (FER.MC, FRRVY), have expressed interest in running Brazil's airports. The five airports--two in Sao Paulo state, one in the capital Brasilia, one in Minas Gerais, as well as Rio's--cover an area which covers about 60% of Brazil's gross domestic product, Cabral said.

Speaking at the same event, Luciano Coutinho, the president of Brazil's government-run National Development Bank, or BNDES, said the bank is preparing ways to help finance the airport concessions.

Any future airport plans would fall under the responsibility of the group's infrastructure investment unit, Odebrecht TransPort, or OTP, which has accumulated a number of large concessions for ports, subways and highways in Brazil and overseas.

OTP was spun out of the group's business development company, Odebrecht Participacoes e Investimentos Ltda, OPI, which has been the starting point for a number of new ventures over the last two or three years, Jens said. In OTP's case, Odebrecht bought in the investment arm of the public pension fund system, or FGTS, as its partner in the project, with a 30% stake.

OTP has major investments to undertake in coming years, so revenues will take some time to build up, Jens said.

The group may soon move to spin off its electric power unit from OPI, as it is now reaching a critical mass, Jens said. Odebrecht Energia has acquired some major concessions, including the 3,150-megawatt Santo Antonio hydroelectric project on the Madeira river in the Amazon, and it recently won a concession to build the 406-megawatt Chaglla hydroelectric plant in Peru, at a cost of an estimated $1 billion.

Meanwhile, Jens said Odebrecht expects to begin construction of a new soccer stadium in Sao Paulo in May or June, which will be one of the places used for the 2014 World Cup. Odebrecht is finalizing negotiations over the financing package with BNDES, he said.