Twenty seven consortia expressed interest in the project and a shortlist of three were invited to bid

1.11 Following the publication of the OJEC notice in June 1996 the FCO received 27 expressions of interest. These bidders included companies from a wide variety of countries including the United Kingdom and Germany. From these 27 potential bidders, the FCO chose nine bidders who were invited to provide a submission supporting their proposal and to make presentations to the FCO and their advisors.

1.12 The presentations were made in October 1996 after which the FCO chose a shortlist of three bidders who were invited to make bids. These bidders were Arteos, Embassy Partnerships and NorWest Holst/Campenon Bernard SGE. All of these included well-known companies capable of meeting the FCO's requirements (Figure 4). The FCO emphasised that the fact that details of the Wilford scheme were included in the Invitation to Tender did not indicate a particular commitment to that scheme, as opposed to any other design. The Invitation to Tender did not stipulate that bidders would be expected to develop the Wilford design, as was stated in the OJEC advertisement.

The short-listed consortia		Figure 4

	The FCO chose a shortlist of three consortia to prepare detailed proposals
		Construction company	Facilities management	Equity finance	Loan finance
	NorWest Holst/Campenon Bernard SGE	SGE Hoch-und Ingenieurbau	Symonds Group Limited	Campenon Bernard/SGE NorWest Holst	Bank of Scotland IKB Deutsche Industriebank
				Charterhouse Bank Ltd
	Embassy Partnerships	Kajima	Johnson Controls	Innisfree and Kajima	Bond issue underwritten by Sumitomo Bank or bank loan from Nord Deutsche Landesbank
Source: Bidders' proposals	Arteos	Bilfinger + Berger	Klüh, replaced by Johnson Controls after appointment of preferred bidder	Bilfinger + Berger K G Allgemeine Leasing BdW	Dresdner Bank

1.13 In April 1997, each bidder submitted a bid to the FCO containing their proposals as to how it would build the Embassy and provide services to the FCO over 30 years. All three bids met the FCO's basic requirements as expressed in the tender documentation supplied to bidders, though there were aspects, notably regarding security requirements, which were not developed as part of the bidding process but were priced after the submission of the bids. The FCO did not reveal the security requirements to the short-listed bidders at this stage because these requirements were sensitive.