"Three Indian airport bids rejected"

Friday, August 6, 2004

Three airport bids rejected 
By Arun Kumar
India - The Hindustan Times


New Delhi, The first twist in the airport restructuring and
modernisation tale came about on Wednesday when the inter-ministerial
group began scanning the 10 bids. Civil aviation ministry sources told
the Hindustan Times that financial advisor ABN Amro has disqualified
three of the bidders in a letter to V. Subramaniam, additional secretary
and financial adviser in the ministry of civil aviation. It is
understood that the bids of Videocon-MYPH group and DS
Construction-Flughafen Munchen-John Laing International-Apollo
Enterprises-Ebony Retail Holdings have been rejected.

Two key criteria - net worth of Rs 500 crore and that the consortium
should have an able and expert technical partner or consultant - are
reportedly responsible for the rejection of the bid. The IMG will meet
again on Saturday to give its recommendations to the empowered group of
ministers. The thinking of the government is that no decision will be
taken on this issue till Parliament is in session. Parliament closes on
September 3. Investment banking sources aver that some of the bidders
could have been rejected due to their track record for implementing
large infrastructure projects. "We want a maximum number of bids till
the last stage so to maximise the price, but we cannot compromise on the
quality," they said.

ABN Amro has set up a core group of advisors from its Australia and
Europe operations  to work on the Mumbai and Delhi airports. While no
rationale has been given to the bidders for such rejection, the
financial advisors have prepared a detailed analysis.

After this disqualification, it is learnt that only four bids will
remain in play for these two airports as most of the bidders have bid
for only one airport.


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