The airports operator BAA is understood to have received at least three bids for Gatwick airport by today's deadline for initial offers, but the final line-up could be longer.
Global Infrastructure Partners, the joint venture between General Electric and Credit Suisse, which owns London City airport, confirmed it had made an offer. But it is set to face competition from Germany's Hochtief, which owns Budapest airport, and a consortium of Babcock & Brown fund and Deutsche Bank's RREEF Infrastructure.
Hochtief has confirmed its interest, but Deutsche Bank and Babcock & Brown declined to comment.
A number of other companies have also been linked to the Gatwick sale, and the eventual list of suitors could be longer.
BAA declined to provide details on the lineup of companies expressing an interest, but reports have suggested that Manchester Airport Group, a fund run by Citigroup and 3i Infrastructure, could also be interested. BAA, which owns seven airports in Britain, is facing pressure from the Competition Commission to sell two airports in the south-east and one in Scotland.
BAA owns Heathrow, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Southampton airports as well as Gatwick.
The commission is expected to confirm its initial conclusions for the break-up of BAA later this year.
BAA has not put a price tag on Gatwick, though industry estimates have suggest it could fetch up to £2bn. However, some analysts have suggested that it could be difficult for Gatwick to command a substantial premium on the regulated asset base – one way of valuing infrastructure assets – of £1.7bn.
Last year 34 million passengers passed through Gatwick, down 2.8% on 2007, with the numbers falling sharply in December, according to figures published by BAA last week. The company said then that it expects "the long-term prospects for growth [to] remain good".
The sale has been complicated by the impact of the credit crunch on financial markets, which has made funds less available, and on the wider economy.
BAA's Gatwick move comes as the airports operator finds itself at the centre of the battle over a third runway at Heathrow. Last week the government gave the go-ahead for a third runway to expand Heathrow's capacity, but the proposal faces huge opposition.
