Virgin Media exploring £100m bid for rival Trooli - report

Virgin Media O2 and its shareholders are reportedly exploring a more than £100m takeover bid for Trooli, one of the UK’s ‘altnet’ fibre broadband companies.

According to Sky News, Virgin Media - which is jointly owned by Liberty Global and Spain's Telefonica - is among a substantial number of parties examining offers for Trooli as part of a formal auction process.

Telecoms industry sources told Sky that any offer was likely to be worth more than £100m.

Trooli is exploring a sale amid growing pressure on the deluge of alternative network - or altnet - providers which have sprung up in the last decade as part of efforts to transform Britain's communications infrastructure.

The market is dominated by BT's Openreach division, but also includes large competitors such as CityFibre Holdings.

Trooli is focused on rural and semi-rural postcodes, and has been connecting households to fibre broadband in counties including Berkshire, Dorset and Kent. It has previously set a target of one million premises by the end of next year, although it is unclear whether that ambition remains realistic, Sky said.

Virgin Media O2's interest in acquiring Trooli has been registered as part of the sale process being handled by bankers at Lazard.

According to a Sky source, it remains possible, however, that an acquisition of the business could be undertaken through the behemoth's shareholders' joint venture, Nexfibre.

Nexfibre is also partly owned by Infravia, an infrastructure investor.