Chicago airport winner says would bid for it again
* YVRAS says would make new Midway offer
* Deal could go back on improved credit, traffic conditions
* YVRAS considering opportunities to sell assets
By Greg Roumeliotis
BERLIN, Nov 16 (Reuters) - A member of the consortium that won the $2.52 billion concession for Chicago's Midway airport but then lost the lease because it could not secure financing said on Monday it would bid again if it was on offer.
"We would certainly bid for it again if it came around," said Brian Bohme, a director at YVR Airport Services (YVRAS), which teamed up with Citi Infrastructure Investors and John Hancock Life Insurance Company to bid for Midway in 2008.
Recent media reports have suggested that the airport's privatisation could be resurrected in the light of improved credit markets and Chicago's strained public finances. The deal with YVR's consortium collapsed in April 2009. [ID:nN20413293]
"Traffic is well above what we included in our bid last year. Midway is coming back much faster than O'Hare (Chicago)," said Bohme, speaking at the Global Airport Development 2009 conference in Berlin.
He added that a deal would be much more feasible now given the improved debt market conditions.
"We put in our bid in September 2008 and then watched Lehman Brothers employees pack up their stuff. It was probably the worst time to put a bid in, right at that point we weren't sure how deep the recession was going to be," said Bohme. Vancouver-based YVRAS, which runs 18 airports around the world, would consider opportunities to divest some assets, Bohme said, adding that despite talk of large discounts, airports were still sold close to their book value, albeit not reaching it. (Editing by David Cowell)
