(Entertainment-NewsWire.com, January 17, 2013 ) San Francisco, CA -- Bidders for the United Kingdom's Stansted Airport have switched days before the final deadline. The emergence of the joint bid by two Malaysian companies along with a New Zealand consortium drop out has thrown the bidding line into a tizzy.
Malaysia Airports Holdings Hbd has apparently founded a partnership with YTL Corp Bhd. The latter is a Malaysian conglomerate that has an interest in power plants, construction business, as well as cement and property development. The two companies have worked out a deal valued at $1.61 billion for the bid.
The bidders from the East have given a bid that is one of three expected to be submitted for the Stansted property by the Jan. 14 deadline. Other bidders still in the race are: Manchester Airports Group, who bids jointly with Australian investment firm Industry Funds Management, and the third bid is from Australia's Macquarie Group Ltd. The fourth, and recently pulled bid bid came from New Zealand's investment management company H.R.L. Morrison & Co. Ltd. The group failed to secure finance for the bid, according to an inside source.
The U.K airports operator Heathrow Airports Holdings Ltd., which is the former BAA, is the selling part of the Stansted airport. The sale is in an attempt to satisfy competition concerns, following a long-term battle with regulators that has spanned four years now. The holding firm has already sold off Gatwick, London's second-busiest airport, as well as Edinburgh airport. Both sales were also to comply with U.K Competition Commission's concern regarding the dominance of Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd. Over the U.K. Airport sector.
Analysts within the industry stated that the commission would not disallow foreign buyers just as long as the expertise required to run an international airport was accounted for. According to reports, all three for the current bidders have demonstrated a capability to fulfill that prerequisite.