See article below from today's Yorkshire Post
Contrary to previous reports on here, no shortlist was drawn up by the councils last Friday nor indeed will the councils be drawing up the shortlist. E&Y will select the shortlist and the Council's will then vote on a 1st and 2nd choice bidder from this list. As previously reported, the exec group in Leeds are expecting to do this during their meeting on 4th April. Report states up to a dozen initial bidders
1) Infratil
2) Balfour
3) MAR
4) Bridgepoint
5) Abertis??
Wonder who the others are - likely to be not much cop if a private equity firm with no prior experience of running airports is "a favourite" to make the final list.
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THE privatisation of Leeds Bradford Airport will take a major step forward this month when a shortlist of bidders is drawn up.
Potential buyers had to submit indicative bids by last Thursday and now experts from accountancy firm Ernst & Young, which is handling the sale of the local authority-owned airport, will draw up a shortlist of around three or four.
That is likely to be completed by the end of January with a preferred buyer announced by early April.
The sale of the airport at Yeadon by the five West Yorkshire councils which own it was announced late last year and is likely to reap each windfalls of millions of pounds.
Up to a dozen organisations are thought to have submitted indicative bids with offers for the airport likely to be well above £100m.
Favourites to be on the shortlist include a private equity bid being spearheaded by former Yorkshire Forward chairman Sir Graham Hall and a consortium involving construction giant Balfour Beatty which bought Exeter Airport for £60m earlier this month.
Industry experts believe that the airport is likely to attract worldwide interest and estimates suggest that it will fetch a price of between £100m and £140m.
Sources close to a number of the bidders have said that they expect the final figure to be around £120m.
The airport, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year and had almost 2.8m passengers fly through it last year, is owned by Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Calderdale and Kirklees councils, with Leeds and Bradford each owning 40 per cent.
Groups which have declared an interest include Regional and City Airports, part of Balfour Beatty's specialist airport investment and development group.
The ambitious group is a joint venture between Balfour Beatty Capital, the group's investment arm. It already owns Exeter Airport, and London City Airport and is keen to expand its portfolio.
The group is being advised by Rod Hoare, the transport industry veteran who is the former chairman of the Heathrow Express and chief executive of Metronet, which runs part of the London Underground system.
Another bidder is private equity group Bridgepoint Capital whose bid is being led by Sir Graham Hall, former chief executive of Yorkshire Electricity and the former non-executive chairman of regional development agencies Yorkshire Forward and The Northern Way.
Bridgepoint is being advised by merchant bank N M Rothschild, led by its Leeds-based managing director David Forbes.
Richard Tollis, aviation partner with Ernst & Young, is heading the team handling the sale on behalf of the local authorities.
His team dealt with the £750m purchase of London City Airport last year as well as airports in Budapest, Hungary; Bratislava, Slovakia; and the sale of Newcastle Airport.
When the sale of Leeds Bradford was announced in December, Mr Tollis said it was likely to attract a great deal of interest. "Prices have been very buoyant in this market. We are already seeing strong interest because this may be the last opportunity to acquire a privatising regional airport in the UK."
It is thought unlikely that Manchester Airports Group – which is local authority-owned and operates Manchester, East Midlands, Bournemouth and Humberside airports – would be among the bidders for Leeds Bradford.
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/ViewA...icleID=1973689.