British media and cellular transmission company Arqiva is reportedly planning to sell itself. Sky News is reporting that Arqiva is close to hiring bankers to advise on a potential sale.

The business employs more than 2,100 people and carries the signals and satellite uplinks for many UK broadcasters, as well as owning some 8,000 cellular relay sites throughout the UK and 1,150 broadcast towers.

Last year, its overall revenues were £884.7 million (€1.04bn) up from £857 million in the previous year.

Arqiva is owned by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (48 per cent) and Macquarie Bank (25 per cent), but is heavily indebted.

However, a sale is by no means a certainty. Alternatively, Arqiva could seek a listing on the stock market.

On November 10th the UK telecoms regulator Ofcom removed most of Arqiva’s regulatory obligations which have been in place since it achieved near-monopoly status in 2005.

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