Spirit - backed by private equity firms Texas Pacific Group and CVC Capital Partners as well as US investment bank Blackstone - saw off rival bids from pubs group Laurel and Japanese bank Nomura.
Inside of BIDS, we have a lot of controls that allow the broker-dealer and us as a marketplace to have complete transparency into what the end user is doing.
There were bids made from around the world - with particular interest from Austria, Germany, Australia and the US - for the lots at the auction, part of the annual Beatles Convention.
Austria rejected rival bids from Sweden's Saab, which was offering the Gripen, and also the F-16 from the largest US defence manufacturer, Lockheed Martin.