Liberty Global is believed to be looking at a potential bid for cable group Virgin Media.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Liberty's chairman and US media mogul John Malone said the company is currently weighing up the idea of buying the UK cable firm, adding that Virgin Media had "a lot of interesting financial attributes to it."

Liberty Global is Europe's biggest cable TV provider, and also operates in Japan and Latin America.

Earlier this summer private equity firm Carlyle Group made a £5.5 billion takeover bid for Virgin. The company has requested all interested parties make their offers known by August 8.