Mapeley STEPS was a new company and its desire to enter the market was reflected in its low bid

2.17  At the time that the STEPS deal came to market, there was only one contractor in the market, Trillium, with experience of the sector. Throughout the bidding process, Mapeley STEPS had stated that its bid was highly competitive since it wanted to use the deal to gain a foothold in what it saw as a developing market. It planned to use the STEPS deal as a platform to win other business and stated that the pricing of its bid was based on returns over a 20-year time horizon and therefore had kept its operating margins in the bid very tight. The bid also contained assumptions that it would win other business in due course and that its central overheads would therefore be spread over a number of contracts.