Saudi Arabia’s National Water Company (NWC) is expected to receive at least four bids for contracts to advise on the planned privatisation of its water and wastewater assets in four cities by 9 June.

Following a pre-bid conference in Saudi Arabia on 15 May, NWC is expecting to receive bids from the UK’s Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Netherlands-based KPMG, and US-headquartered Deloitte. Bids will be made in consortium with technical advisers. All four bidders are expected to bid for both contracts.

NWC is essentially tendering two advisory contracts: one for the part-privatisation of assets in Riyadh, and the second for assets in Jeddah, Mecca and Taif.

The utility is aiming to have selected advisers by September, and they will then be given six months to develop the structuring of the privatisation plan.