NTL gets financing for Virgin, Telewest deals

NTL today said it has finalized its financing plans for transforming itself from a mere cable provider in the U.K. to a full-service telco with fingers in wireline telephony, broadband and wireless both home and abroad—all wrapped up in the brand name Virgin.

NTL said today it plans to borrow 600 million pounds ($1.1 billion) to finance its acquisitions of Telewest Global and Virgin Mobile--issuing half of the amount in bonds back by its cable unit and using an existing credit facility to raise the other half. NTL closed its $6 billion deal with Telewest in March and it’s $1.67 billion purchase of Virgin’s mobile virtual network operator unit last week, giving it the final component of its quadruple play platform.

NTL plans to offer its first service bundle in 2007, rebranding the entire operation under the Virgin name. The company is also reportedly planning to offer a mobile TV service to compete with the new Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld (DVB-H) networks launching on the continent and in the U.K.