Bus stops worth more than £100m

THREE bidders are lined up to slug it out for advertising rights to a quarter of London's bus shelters, a deal worth up to £100m, in the next few weeks.

The 10-year contract to sell ad space and build, maintain and clean some 2,500 bus stops around the capital was put out to tender by Transport for London last month.

The three contenders are present incumbent Adshel, which is a subsidiary of US advertising giant Clear Channel, JC Decaux, the Anglo-French group that claims to be the biggest street furniture company in the world, and Citylights London, a consortium formed by posters group Maiden and Spain's Cemusa.

The contract ranks as one of the largest in the UK. But final terms may depend on what share of ad revenues the winner will give to TfL and what commitments to maintenance and cleanliness it makes.

Some bidders are said to be offering more hi-tech information on how buses are running, enhancing the present alphanumeric displays at some bus shelters.

Adshel has been the major power in the capital's bus shelters market for more than two decades. The shelters up for grabs represent about half the sites it currently runs for TfL. Adshel recently won a £70m, 10-year contract with Centro, the West Midlands transport authority, which it began this month.

Decaux has landed 80% of the street furniture contracts it has bid for around the globe in recent times and already looks after bus shelters in the borough of Camden.

Maiden is moving outside its usual massive poster advertising sites and acknowledged this by teaming up with Spanish market leader Cemusa, which is already big in the US.

Maiden yesterday won a £450m contract to provide outdoor advertising at 17 Network Rail stations including all the mainline central London ones.

Other major outdoor advertising tenders likely to be decided soon include one for BAA's airports and the main contract for London Underground.