The company first invited approaches on July 2, after receiving interest from private equity group Carlyle.
Since then a number of other private equity groups, including KKR and Providence have been linked with a bid, as has John Malone's media firm Liberty Media.
The first-round deadline for bids was due this week, but Virgin has now indefinitely delayed the auction after its financial advisor recommended an extension to the process, until bidders "can complete their proposals in a more stable debt environment".
The ability of private equity companies to raise cheap debt has been significantly impaired by rising concerns among banks about the risk of lending money in the current economic climate.
In recent big deals, such as KKR's acquisition of Boots and Cerberus' acquisition of Chrysler, the banks lending the debt have found it difficult to sell it on to investors, who are nervous after widespread defaults on payments by sub-prime American mortgage borrowers.
This has made the banks themselves wary of funding any new large-scale deals such as Virgin Media, which is valued at £11bn.
Meanwhile, the company is expected to reveal tomorrow that it has lost 60,000 subscribers in the second quarter, with two-thirds of these leaving because they are unable to watch some Sky channels on Virgin's service, including Sky Sports News and Sky One, which is home to hit shows '24', 'Battlestar Galactica' and 'Lost'.
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
