Gatwick airports bidders down to two - Gatwick Airport News

Airport news for Gatwick on 29/12/2008.

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Hochtief AirPort, an arm of the German engineering group, and Citigate Infrastructure, which is a consortium that includes the Citigroup bank, are the two entities almost certain to be involved in bidding for the airport valued at £2 billion.

Inside sources, however, have indicated that other groups earlier believed to be preparing to bid are not in a position now to do so, having been unable to secure the necessary financial backing.

Virgin Atlantic and easyJet had hoped to attract backers to form a stand-alone consortium to bid on the airport, but were not able to do so and now are said to be attempting to join with one of the remaining bidders.

A Virgin Atlantic spokesman noted: “We are now focused on offering our experience and help to one of the other bidders. We are not looking to put our own money into this but we have valuable customer experience — and that is what the new owners of Gatwick will need.”

Hochtief AirPort is expected to receive the necessary financial backing from is parent company’s financial division, and already holds shares in a number of airports, including Athens, Budapest, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Sydney and Tirana airports.

The Citigate consortium comprises US financial firm John Hancock, Citigroup and the Vancouver Airports group. Earlier this year, the consortium bought Chicago’s Midway airport for £1.7 billion.

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