UK: Pre-qualified organisations have been invited to tender to take a majority stake in the Welsh government-owned company which is developing the Global Centre of Rail Excellence in South Wales.
The procurement process began in January, and the pre-qualified bidders have now progressed to the next stage. Procurement is expected to run until the autumn, with the successful bidder then taking a majority stake in GCRE Ltd and funding the railway test facility through to completion.
The winner will also be able to benefit from the wider commercial potential of the 700 ha site, with GCRE Ltd Chief Executive Simon Jones anticipating opportunities in other sectors including renewable energy.
‘Through our procurement process over the last few months we have seen a significant amount of interest from potential private investors in the GCRE vision’, Jones reported on April 25.
‘We’ve had high quality names from different sectors register interest both in GCRE Ltd as a company and in the transformational facility we are constructing. We have now pre-qualified a strong group of bidders to the next round of the process and issued this ITT to bidders which will allow us to open a formal dialogue with them.’
