The sale of the French government's 60% stakes in the Lyon-Saint-Exupery and Nice Cote d'Azur airports has attracted 11 potential bidders. 

According to sources, the offers ranged from €750 million (US$830 million) to €900 million (US$1 billion) for  Nice Cote d'Azur and and from €500 million (US$550 million) to €800 million (US$885 million) for Lyon-Saint-Exupery.

With the sale of the two airports, the French Government expects to raise around €1.6 billion (US$1.8 billion). The government also sold Toulouse-Blagnac airport in 2014.

According to sources five teams have bid for Nice airport, including:

Italy's Atlantia along with EDF's investment branch EDF Invest; a consortium led by Ardian and including Caisses d'Epargne; Spain's Ferrovial with Meridiam; a consortium of Vinci, CDC and Predica; Germany's Allianz alongside Global Infrastructure Partners.

On the other hand, six teams have also bid for Lyon airport, according to the sources:

These include Ardian-Siparex-Caisses d'Epargne-holding JCDecaux; Ferrovial-Meridiam; Vinci-CDC-Predica; Atlantia; Limak-the Cube fund-Geneva airport; and Macquarie along with FFP.

Agence des participations de l'État (APE), a vehicle of the Government of France managing the state's holdings in several firms, hired HSBC and Mediobanca as consultants for the two airport privatization processes.

Nice Côte d'Azur Airport is an international airport located 5.9 km southwest of Nice, in the Alpes-Maritimes départment of France. It is the third busiest airport in France. In 2013, it handled 11.55 million passengers. The airport's theoretical capacity is 13 million passengers and 52 movements (26 landings) per hour.

Lyon-Saint-Exupéry Airport is the international airport of Lyon, the third-biggest city in France and an important transport facility for the entire Rhône-Alpes region. In 2013, the airport served 8.56 million passengers, an increase of 1.3% over the previous year. Air freight increased by 22.7% to 44,820 tonnes, although overall aircraft movements dropped by 2.8% to 113,420.