London Olympics Organizers Offer 6 Billion Pounds in Contracts

The organizers of London’s 2012 Olympic Games plan to start hiring companies for 6 billion pounds ($11.8 billion) worth of contracts as they prepare for construction to begin later this year.

The vast majority of business opportunities remain to be let, and this year represents a huge opportunity for U.K. businesses,” said John Armitt, chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, in an e-mailed statement today.

The games have a budget of 9.3 billion pounds, and will be Europe’s largest public construction project. The organizers started clearing the 500-acre (200-hectare) Olympic Park site last year.

The delivery authority and the games’ organizing committee invited businesses to Manchester today to publicize Olympic opportunities. More than 500 contractors have won business worth 1 billion pounds so far, the authority said.

Businesses the length and breadth of the country will win contracts, and we hope gain a huge amount of experience of what it takes to stage and host big sporting events,” said Sebastian Coe, chairman of the organizing committee.