A consortium led by Skanska was tipped to have beaten a Bouygues team to the 拢620m St Bartholomew's PFI contract, the UK's biggest ever hospital PFI project.
A meeting of the St Bartholemew's trust was held on Wednesday afternoon, as 黑洞社区 went to press, at which the decision was privately announced.

The decision, which may not be formally released until next month, is the culmination of a bidding process that is believed to have cost the contenders a total of 拢40m.

Other members of the Skanska team are PFI finance house Innisfree and architect HOK, which has imported designers from the USA.

French contractor Bouygues is thought to have decided to pitch for the scheme after it failed to win PFI hospital projects at Oxford and in Havering, east London, leaving it with a high level of capacity.

The winning bidder is expected to go through 12-15 months of negotiation before the final contract is signed and the project gets on site in late 2004.

Bouygues' consortium includes Nightingale Associates and HLM, assisted by Terry Farrell & Partners.

The contract has proved controversial because it only attracted two bidders, and Department of Health's regulations require three.

A decision between the two consortium was first expected in July. The contract was first let in early 2002.