News broke last week that airport operator Hochtief’s bid for London’s Gatwick airport had been excluded.
The reason? According to Bloomberg‘s unnamed sources:
Essen-based Hochtief submitted an initial offer that was too low, one of the people said, declining to be identified as the details of the sale are private. The decision would leave five remaining bidders: infrastructure funds started by Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG and 3i Group Plc, along with a group led by Toronto-based Borealis Infrastructure and Global Infrastructure Partners, the owner of London’s City Airport.
Not quite.
FT Alphaville hears that Hochtief, which owns six airports including Hamburg and Athens International, was excluded on the basis of a technical detail. Bidders were required to submit their business plans (to a competitor no less — current owner BAA) along with their indicative offers for the airport. Hochtief spokeswoman Donatella Gasser has declined to comment on the details of the failed bid.
According to two of FT Alphaville’s sources, however, Hochtief’s business plan was actually very good, and the sum it offered was close to other bids submitted, at about £1.7bn (not far off from Gatwick’s official regulatory base of £1.6bn, which would also differ from another Bloomberg story).
Related links:
BAA receives Gatwick bids – FT
Airport purchasing parity – FT Alphaville
(Another) deal of the day: London Gatwick – FT Alphaville