A consortium led by Citigroup has a bid for Gatwick

A consortium that includes an infrastructure fund of Citigroup and Vancouver Airport to John Hancock Life Insurance Co. made an offer for BAA at Gatwick Airport late on Tuesday, 24 hours later than the deadline. The consortium, known as Lysander Gatwick Investment Group, is likely to have become the fourth competitor to the airport, BAA, the Spanish subsidiary of Grupo Ferrovial, the sale was made last year.
29-04-2009 / 13:16
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Agencies / Investment Strategies
Other offerings are Global Infrastructure Partners, which includes General Electric and Credit Suisse Group (CS), owners of London City Airport, and another group that includes Manchester Airports Group and Borealis Infrastructure, part of the pension fund Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System , noted the sources, has to Dow Jones Newswires reported a source familiar with the situation.

Also submitted a bid by Terra Firma, a company of Guy Hands, said the sources, although one source said it was not strong enough.

The offers range between 1,300 million and 1,800 million pounds, the sources said, below the initial assessment of BAA 2,000 million pounds. However, BAA is under pressure from the regulator to close the transaction, so you could have little room to maneuver.

The regulator announced in March that BAA should sell three of its seven British airports, including London's Gatwick and Stansted, in a period of two years to be regarded as anticompetitive by the joint ownership of BAA.

Gatwick is the second largest airport after Heathrow United Kingdom, also owned by BAA. Last year Gatwick fell by a total of 34.2 million passengers, while others Heathrow hosted 66.9 million.

BAA is expected to take a decision on the bids over the coming weeks, sources indicated