Sir Richard Branson''s Virgin Media, in which the maverick British tycoon is the single largest shareholder, will be taken private for more than £5.5 billion (approximately Rs44,973.5 crore).

Carlyle, one of the world''s leading private equity groups, has made a preliminary offer of between $33 to $35 per share for Virgin Media, the UK''s leading cable television company with a £4-billion annual turnover

The offer values Virgin at approximately £5.6 billion. The total value of the takeover deal, including Virgin''s debt of almost £6 billion, is expected at about £11.5 billion.

If it goes through, it would be the second biggest takeover of a British business by private equity, after Boots. Shares in company, which is listed on the US Nasdaq and not in London, closed on Friday at $24.37 per share.

It is believed that most of the other leading Virgin shareholders would be keen to sell at somewhere around the price offered by Carlyle, although the Virgin board believes the business could be worth around $40 a share.

Other private equity firms are said to be equally interested in making offers for Virgin and Providence, another private equity group, is said to have put together a consortium of private equity players to make an offer for the British company.

Virgin''s board has asked its investment bankers, Goldman Sachs, to conduct an auction of the business.

It is believed Virgin''s managers feel the business would be in a better position to grow as a private company, which would then be freed from the cumbersome statutory requirements to make quarterly announcements of earnings and have more freedom to make investments.

Sources say Sir Richard is likely to remain a shareholder in Virgin as and when it is taken private.

The company has 9 million customers and in its last results, Virgin said it had three million users of its television services, 3.4 million broadband customers, 4.5 million subscribers to its mobile phone service and 4.1 million fixed-line telephone customers.

Virgin is in a bitter legal dispute with British Sky Broadcasting following the failure of the two businesses to reach an agreement on terms for Sky to be carried on Virgin''s cable channels.