THE AIRCRAFT maintenance company SR Technics has agreed to sell part of its operation at Dublin airport, which it said it was closing earlier this year.

The Swiss-owned company said last night that “a preferred bidder” had been chosen for its landing gear and auxiliary power unit (APU) operations.

The company declined to name the preferred bidder or say how much the deal was worth.

It said that as part of the agreement, the identity of the purchaser of the landing gear and APU assets would remain confidential until the sale was finalised.

The Irish Timesrevealed last month that a European-based company that specialised in auxiliary power units, which comprised about 20 per cent of the business of SR Technics here, was believed to have tabled an offer.

It is understood that the company’s APU and landing gear operations occupy two of the six hangars used by SR Technics at Dublin airport.

The Swiss-owned firm decided to break up the sale of assets at Dublin airport as a result of not receiving a significant bid for the entire operation. A spokesman for the company said last night: “Several bids for all or part of SRT Ireland were received but they were substantially below the current market value of these assets.”

The spokesman said that SR Technics had set a deadline of May 22nd for bids for its base-maintenance operation and of May 27th for offers for its line maintenance and garage activities.

“SR Technics has been in close contact with a number of parties interested in these parts of the business and will be meeting bidders in the coming weeks to discuss their proposals in detail,” the company said last night.