ABN Amro is New Delhi and Mumbai Airports Development Consultant

December 23, 2003

ABN Amro is New Airport Development Consultant
Times of India, India


NEW DELHI: The civil aviation ministry has shortlisted ABN-Amro Financial 
Services as the financial consultant for the government’s mega privatisation 
plan for Delhi and Mumbai airports. ABN Amro was selected among the 11 parties 
who had submitted bids in the second round of bidding. 

This decision will now be conveyed to the group of ministers (GoM) and their 
final consent sought this week, a senior government official told The Times of 
India. 

The GoM is expected to meet this week to finalise the appointment. 

This would kickstart the airport privatisation process that had hit a small 
turbulence after the GoM decided to scrap the initial bids invited for the 
consultant. The GoM had also directed the civil aviation ministry to redraft 
the tender document for the financial consultant. Under the fresh guidelines, 
the consultant would be chosen on the basis of its technical expertise rather 
than the financial aspect, the official said. 

The redrafted document put greater weight on the financial qualification of the 
company. 

"The earlier document also included a clause that said the interested company 
should have an Indian experience in handling infrastructure projects. Such a 
clause is not necessary and may filter out some good companies. So, we have 
decided to scrap this clause. Also, the earlier document restricted firms from 
holding roadshows," the official added. 

Under the new guidelines, the government has decided to set a fee for the 
financial consultant and decide the appointment on the merit of the company’s 
past experience. "With this, participating firms would know what they would be 
paid for the exercise and they can either be part of the process or not," the 
official added. 

Officials pointed out that the bids were scrapped on the insistence of finance 
minister Jaswant Singh, who had expressed his displeasure at the process 
followed to select the financial consultant. 

"The government had followed its age-old norms of selecting the lowest bidder 
rather than weighing its technical expertise. It is too big and too prestigious 
a project to be handed over to the lowest bidder. We want the best firm to 
handle this project." 

While all the 12 firms, which had initially bid for the exercise, were invited 
for second round, officials said Ernst and Young (which was the lowest bidder 
in the first round) did not submit its bid this time round. The other bidders 
includes Tata Economic Services, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and KPMG
 
 
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