THE preferred bidder to take on the Discovery Park site - Pfizer - in Sandwich has been named as a consortium led by London & Metropolitan International Developments Ltd.

The consortium is being financed by a European real estate investor and is thought to include at least one pharmaceutical company.

A staement sent to workers at the Sandwich site from Pfizer says: "Following a structured selection process, Pfizer has entered into a period of legal exclusivity with a consortium led by London & Metropolitan and financed by a major European institutional real estate investor, which could lead to the sale of the Discovery Park campus in Sandwich, Kent.

"This announcement is a positive milestone in the transition of Discovery Park to becoming an R&D led multiple-use campus with Enterprise Zone status."

London & Metropolitan said it had "nothing to add" to the Pfizer statement.

The firm has carried out UK and European projects, including the development of retail sites Bicester Village in Oxfordshire and Kildare Village in Ireland.

Pfizer announced last  February that it would withdraw from Sandwich by the end of 2012. Since then a decision to retain some 8900 staff at the site has been made. The staff will act as an anchor business for the site, renamed Discovery Park when it was put on the market last June.