According to reports, members of the consortium include Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Blackstone and Cinven. The consortium is due to meet today with NTL for further talks about a buy-out.
Shares in NTL, listed on the Nasdaq in New York, rose 8.7% yesterday to close at $26.55, and in after hours trading the price increased to $26.83. Reports say that investors would want close to $30 a share.
NTL has recently undergone a merger with Telewest and the consolidated company merged with Virgin Mobile last month, a deal that gave Sir Richard Branson a stake of more than 10% in NTL, which means he would stand to make more than £1bn if the company is sold.
At the end of last year, reports of a private equity bid for NTL emerged, but at that time it was believed that these were rejected because the company wanted to remain publicly listed.
However, with £6bn in debt and chief executive Stephen Burch admitting that the merger with Telewest was not going as easily as NTL had hoped, investors are understood to now be more receptive.
Earlier this month, the company reported a rise in revenues of £272.9m for the quarter, mainly due to merger with Telewest. At the same time, the number of new broadband customers it signed up was the lowest for four years.
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