BAA has received at least two second-round bids for Gatwick Airport with a third expected later, people familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires.
The bids range between US$1.9 billion and $2.63 billion, below the airport operator's initial valuation of over $2.93 billion. But BAA is under pressure from regulators to conclude a deal, so it may have little room to manoeuvre.
Global Infrastructure Partners, which includes London City airport owners General Electric (GE) and Credit Suisse (CS), submitted one bid and another was made by a group comprising Manchester Airports Group and Borealis Infrastructure, part of pension fund Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System.
A third consortium, which includes Citigroup infrastructure fund, Vancouver Airport and John Hancock Life Insurance, bidding jointly as Lysander Gatwick Investment Group, is expected to put in a bid later today.
A fourth bid from Guy Hands' buyout firm Terra Firma was submitted, but it wasn't solid enough in detail.
Analysts said that BAA could decide not to sell and wait for the economic and financial situation to improve but warned that investors would view this as a risky strategy.
The regulator in March said BAA must sell three of its seven UK airports, including London's Stansted and Gatwick, within two years because it deemed BAA's ownership of the airports as anti-competitive.
Gatwick Airport is the UK's second-busiest airport after London's Heathrow Airport, which also is owned by BAA. Gatwick last year handled 34.2 million passengers while Heathrow handled 66.9 million.
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