"Etisalat Consortium (Etisalat) made the highest financial bid, offering $3.25-billion, followed by the consortium including South Africa's MTN, which offered $2.94-billion," a source in one of the bidding consortia said, requesting anonymity.

Egypt's Orascom came third among the six bidders, offering $2.61-billion, he said.

The highest bidder is expected to win the licence to become the second mobile operator in the lucrative Saudi market, although it has to meet a number of financial requirements and be approved by the Saudi cabinet.

The financial offers were opened here in the presence of representatives of the consortia and officials from the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC).

But the media were kept out despite earlier promises that the ceremony would be public.

A consortium in which billionaire Prince Al-Walid bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz partnered Spain's Telefonica Moviles surprisingly made the lowest bid at $1.78-billion, the source said.

The six consortia, each including an international operator and at least five Saudi companies, were short listed by the CITC after bidders including Britain's Vodafone and France's Bouygues were unexpectedly eliminated from the race at the end of the technical evaluation phase on Saturday.

The government is expected to endorse the commission's choice, but the highest bidder will also have to prove its solvency and deal with a bank approved by the CITC.

"The CITC will recommend to the cabinet to grant the licence to the bidder who made the highest financial offer once it has ascertained the validity of the offer and its compliance with specifications," CITC chief Mohammed al-Suwayyel said in a statement on Tuesday night without naming that bidder.

He said the commission would now also evaluate the proposal made by the highest bidder for a 3G licence. If the proposal is accepted, it would recommend to the cabinet to issue a corresponding licence.

Foreign operators bidding for the Saudi licence were allowed to buy up to 49 percent of the joint company that will operate the new GSM.