TWO more firms, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and Providence Equity Partners, have joined a consortium of private-equity firms lining up a £6 billion knockout bid for NTL and Telewest, the British cable companies that this month announced their long-awaited merger.

KKR and Providence have joined forces with Blackstone Group and Cinven to table a formal bid as soon as the companies’ merger is completed, expected during the first quarter of next year.

Sources familiar with the situation confirmed last night that the four buyout firms are drawing up a bid that will involve each investing an equal amount of equity.

It is understood that the consortium has decided against trying to acquire NTL and Telewest separately ahead of their merger owing to the complexity of such a transaction. None of the firms would officially comment.

One person with knowledge of the consortium’s plans said it was possible that no bid would emerge, but added: “When NTL and Telewest come together, the consortium will be ready to push the button on this.”

Bill Huff, the vulture-fund manager who is the largest individual shareholder in both NTL and Telewest, is reported to have declined an approach to sell his stakes in the two companies.

However, bankers said this weekend that an offer to acquire his stake of just over 10% in the combined group — which has yet to be named — would be dealt with “according to the numbers proposed”.

In seeking to acquire the newly formed cable-television operator, the private-equity firms would hope to take advantage of its scale and the growth opportunities afforded by the so-called “triple play” of TV, telephony and broadband.

Analysts believe that the emergence of a club deal is likely to bring other privateequity firms out into the open to form a rival consortium.

While the merged NTL and Telewest would continue to lag significantly behind BT in the residential telecoms sector and BSkyB in terms of the number of pay-TV customers, they would together have more than 2.5m broadband users, well ahead of BT. BSkyB, 36.8%-owned by News Corporation, ultimate owner of The Sunday Times, is understood to be looking at acquiring a presence in the broadband market.

Confirmation of leveraged-buyout interest in Britain’s cable sector echoes developments across Europe in recent months. It also comes as NTL and Telewest and other British broadcasters square up to BSkyB in the battle for rights to televise Premier League football from next season.

NTL has already teamed up with ITV to bid for some of the rights, and Five has also expressed an interest in bidding.

However, BSkyB’s chief operating officer, Richard Freudenstein, is expected to say today that there is no guarantee that consumers will benefit from splitting the rights among different broadcasters and that requiring viewers to buy a multitude of packages will be inconvenient.

BSkyB has already turned up the heat on its cable rivals with a recent increase in the charges levied on them to carry Sky-branded channels.

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