Balfour Beatty and HICL win place on Burbo Bank windfarm shortlist

London-listed trio Balfour Beatty, HICL Infrastructure and International Public Partnerships are among five groups to have their bids shortlisted to own and run the £230m transmission link with a new offshore windfarm in the Bay of Liverpool.

On Tuesday regulator Ofgem confirmed the five shortlisted bidders for the link to the Burbo Bank Extension Offshore Windfarm, which were:

· The Balfour Beatty Equitix Consortium, comprising a subsidiary of FTSE 250-listed Balfour Beatty and investor Equitix Ltd,

· Dalmore Capital, as manager of the PPP Equity PIP equity infrastructure fund,

· Diamond Transmission Partners, a consortium comprising Mitsubishi Corporation and FTSE 250-listed HICL Infrastructure,

· Mari Energy Transmission, a consortium between Australian bank Macquarie and offshore transmission specialist Frontier Power,

· Transmission Capital Partners, consortium between FTSE 250-listed International Public Partnerships and Transmission Capital Partners Ltd Partnership.

"The shortlist shows there is strong competition to own the link and the bidders will go through to the final stage of the tender where Ofgem will appoint the Offshore Transmission Owner (OFTO) for this project," Ofgem said.

"The OFTO will receive a guaranteed revenue stream for 20 years under the terms of their licence, subject to availability of the assets."

Ofgem expects to announce details of the preferred bidder for the Burbo Bank Extension project in April 2017.

The Burbo Bank Extension project is being tendered under the fourth round of the OFTO regime, which has attracted nearly £3bn in investment.