Seven groups have indicated an interest in buying Spain’s two biggest airpoirts.
Five are potential buyers of both the Madrid and Barcelona airports while two others have said they are intetrested in one airport each, a report by the Reuters news agency has said.
Madrid’s Barajas and the El Prat airport at Barcelona have been put onthe market for €5.3bn by the country’s ministry ofpublic works.
Among the potential bidders is Spanish conglomerate Ferrovial which owns several aiprirts in the UK, among them Heathrow.
Ferrovial, in a consortium with CPP Investment, IGM Luxembourg and Infinity Investments is ready to bid for both properties.
Other bidders for both airports are Germany’s Fraport, operator of Frankfurt Airport, which is in aconsortium with Spanish company Acciona, Spain's FCC, in conjunction with Changi Airports International and Siemens, Aeroports de Paris, which runs Charles De Gaulle Airport, with GIP Ilex and Az-Argos and India's GMR Infrastructure which is bidding by itself.
The two groups bidding for one airport are Spanish infrastructure firm Abertis which is planning a joint bid with Borealis and Ibervias for El Prat airport and while Spanish builder San Jose is aiming to buy Barajas with Cedicor and Global Mirobriga.
Reuters said the Ministry said it would review documents submitted by the groups and announce those eligible to tender next week.
Spain set a floor price of €3.7bn for Barajas and €1.6bn for El Prat when it put the airports up for sale in July in order to cut its borrowing needs. It hopes to complete the sale in November.