AMONG the many numbers that accompanied NTL’s agreement to buy Virgin Mobile for £962m last week, one in particular seemed to be a source of satisfaction to Sir Richard Branson. The deal with the cable- television group represented an 86% return for the public shareholders who backed Virgin Mobile’s flotation less than two years ago.

Those handsome returns should go some way towards quietening the oft-made criticism that the City does not entirely trust Virgin’s founder and figurehead.

City memories are short, and Virgin Mobile has been a hot property for a while now.

It is easy to forget that the business endured a difficult flotation in July 2004. Virgin Group and its advisers were forced to slash the price they were seeking, amid worries about the vulnerability of the mobile firm’s asset-light business model, and more nebulous concerns about “the Branson factor”.

These go back to 1987, when the young Branson took Virgin private after little more than a year as a quoted company. The impression created was that for all his seeming love of personal publicity, Britain’s most famous businessman was uncomfortable with public scrutiny of his finances.

This view of Branson was reinforced by Virgin’s bewilderingly compartmentalised corporate structure, and its extensive use of offshore companies. Accounting sleuths could often see plenty of debt and little in the way of profits, but getting a consolidated overview of the whole group proved nigh on impossible.

During the late 1990s, as Virgin stretched its brand to cola, cinemas, financial services, trains and even bridal wear, financial journalists repeatedly sought to answer the question: “Is Branson going bust?” If that was ever a serious risk, it is no longer. Virgin cleared about £325m from its investment in Virgin Blue, the Australian airline, within three years of its launch in 2000.

Even that success pales in comparison with Virgin Mobile. Scarcely six years since its launch, Tom Alexander and the rest of the Virgin Mobile management team have turned an idea into a company worth £1 billion.

The price NTL is paying in cash and shares values Virgin’s 71.2% stake at £700m. That is on top of the £237m that Virgin took out in the form of a pre- flotation dividend, and another £125m of shares that it sold in the share offering.

Virgin said this was the highest price paid for any Virgin business, and the biggest gain on one of its investments. Branson’s original investment was about £45m.

No wonder Virgin Mobile is a business that Branson is seeking to take around the world.

Operationally separate Virgin Mobile businesses are already trading in America, Australia and Canada, and last week Branson launched the brand in France, a joint venture with Carphone Warehouse. Coming soon will be moves into South Africa, China and perhaps Italy and Spain.

It is worth remembering that before Virgin Mobile, “virtual” mobile-network operators did not exist. None of those that have copied it, such as Easy Mobile, has managed to replicate its success.

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