Portugal's government announced last week that the seven consortia interested in buying Empresa Geral de Fomento (EGF), the state-owned company specialised in solid urban waste collection and treatment, will participate in the second round of bids. Final proposals are due on July 31st.

Parpública said in May that it had received seven non-binding proposals to buy EGF, which is a subsidiary of state water group Águas de Portugal, but did not name the bidders.

Amongst the companies interested in buying EGF, according to the Portuguese press, two are from China - Sound Global and the Beijing Enterprises Water Group.

Brazilian companies Odebrecht Ambiental and Solví had previously announced that they had set up a consortium called Portugal Ambiental to bid for EGF.

According to sources, a consortium formed by EGEO and Antin, Portugal's Mota-Engil and Spain's Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC) have also shown interest in the privatisation.

Sources said the bids presented were for more than €100 million. Consultancy firm Roland Berger had initially valued EGF at between €140 million and €200 million.

Portugal's government approved the privatization of EGF in January as part of an asset sale programme to meet the terms of the EU-IMF bailout.

Portugal's Supreme Administrative Court issued an injunction to suspend the sale, supporting six town halls which had appealed the privatization. Now the government has until the end of June to present its arguments to the court.