Battersea Power Station is expected to have attracted bids from around the world when the deadline is reached at noon today.

Knight Frank, which is marketing the grade II*-listed building for administrators Ernst and Young, reported brisk interest in the closing weeks of the sale.

Stephan Miles-Brown, Knight Frank’s head of residential development, said: “The levels of interest and the seriousness with which the parties have taken it has been very encouraging.”

Potential suitors have come from the Middle East, South East Asia and India, Russia and the CIS, North America and Europe, he said.

“There have been lots of interesting ideas, some of them completely off the wall though naturally they are not terriblt forthcoming at this stage,” he said.

The administrators will begin to open the bids in Knight Frank’s presence once the deadline has passed.

A winner is likely to be announced before the summer.

“We won’t want to hang around and let it drag on,” he said.