The firms will now battle it out for seven schools across Hertfordshire, Luton and Reading.
Education sources said the three bidders will now enter a four month competitive dialogue period with the Education Funding Agency.
Final bids are due in the first week of January 2014 with a winner due to be announced in February.
This batch of schools is the first of five batches to be procured through the government’s new Pf2 private finance initiative.