Potential Virgin and easyJet consortium out of Gatwick bidding

The potential number of bidders on Gatwick Airport looks to be reduced to two, as other consortiums have had difficulty in raising the necessary financial backing.

Citigate Infrastructure, a consortium including Citigroup bank, and Hochtief AirPort, part of a German engineering company, are expected to be the two bidders for the airport valued at £2 billion airport, as inside sources report that other parties that had been interested were not in a position to bid. One consortium that appears to be out of the running was reported to be led by carriers Virgin Atlantic and easyJet.

The two airlines were hoping that they could attract backers to form a stand-alone consortium, but now are said to be looking to form an alliance with one of the remaining bidders.

A Virgin Atlantic spokesman said: “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.”

The Citigate consortium comprises Citigroup bank, Vancouver Airports and the US financial company, John Hancock. In 2008, the group purchased Chicago’s Midway airport for £1.7 billion.

At this time, Hochtief AirPort, has holdings in the Athens, Budapest, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Sydney and Tirana airports, and its bid on Gatwick is expected to be backed by the finance arm of its parent organization.

Thanks to business.timesonline.co.uk for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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