Consortium Could Bid For Virgin Media

A private equity consortium headed by the US group Providence Equity Partners could make a £7.5 billion bid for Virgin Media.

A report in yesterday’s Observer said that the consortium is considering whether to take advantage of Virgin Media’s current share price of £24.

Providence Partners is apparently in talks with its partners Blackstone, KKR and Cinven about making an approach for the cable group in the coming weeks.

At the start of the month, Virgin announced that its customer base dropped to 4.81 million in the first quarter of 2007, with a net loss of 46,900 subscribers (see Virgin Media Subscriptions Decline).

It said that this was mainly due to Sky’s removal of its basic channels from the Virgin Media platform (see Virgin/Sky Channel Dispute Continues).

Virgin Media and Sky have been at loggerheads since the satellite broadcaster purchased a 17.9% stake in ITV last year (see Branson Bites Back At Sky’s Swoop On ITV).

Virgin Media: www.virginmedia.com