When Goldman Sachs? mergers team arrived at the London headquarters of BAA at 7am on Thursday its members were confident their consortium would see off Ferrovial, their rival for the world?s largest airports operator.

Simon Dingemans, head of UK investment banking, had a 960p-a-share cash offer in his pocket, which would trump the BAA-backed 950?p offer from the Spanish infrastructure group. With him in the building were two of the bank?s biggest stars, Michael Sherwood, co-chief executive in Europe, and Bill Young, head of Goldman?s infrastructure investment fund.