With the property and FM world awaiting the official announcement on STEPS, due to be made in July and expected this week, the financial pundits are tipping the George Soros backed Mapeley consortium to win out against the other two final bidders Servus and Trillium.

The Mapeley consortium, bringing together three leading UK FM players, comprises Fortress Investment Corporation, Soros Real Estate Partners, Morgan Stanley, Halifax, DTZ Debenham Thorpe, Grubb & Ellis Management Services, Aqumen, MacLellan and SI-CBX.

Mapeley is also bidding for the Abbey National property outsourcing deal (see News story)

According to Edward Simpkins in the Sunday Telegraph: "Trillium privately concedes it was never likely to win the Steps contract as it would effectively have recreated in the private sector the Government's own former property manager, Pace. Trillium would have been able to hold the Government to ransom."