She found her husband on the lower level, waiting for a formal bid from the hotel manager, who had retired to his office.

On 10 February, it was reported that a formal bid has since been made to the administrators.

If the Constellation group does not make a formal bid by deadline, the consortium must wait six months before trying again.

The letter, he said, was "somewhere between a formal bid and an expression of interest."

Industry officials said Ford's proposal might have changed as it assembled a formal bid.

"You won't even give us the address of your firm, and you haven't put in a formal bid."

And I will put in a formal bid if you will show me how to do it.

But so far, the Catholic Church has not made a formal bid to take back any schools.

That means the consortium has only a three-day window to make a formal bid with a final price.

But negotiations were necessary before a formal bid could be made.