Telecommunications companies from all over the world are queuing to buy Mercury, the GBP2 billion (about HK$23.5 billion) British domestic telephone service owned by Cable and Wireless (C&W).
If current merger talks between C&W and British Telecommunications (BT) are successful, Mercury will have to be sold to avoid referral of the deal to Britain's Monopolies and Mergers Commission.
Stet, the Italian state-owned carrier, confirmed that it would buy Mercury if the group was up for sale.
Launched after the British government deregulated the telecoms market, Mercury failed to make much headway among residential users.
However, it does have a healthy roster of business customers, which would be attractive to a new player.
Stet is thought to be considering a joint bid for Mercury with Videtron, a British-based cable television and telephone service, in a bid to reduce its own dependence on the home market. Last year Stet made profits of about GBP1 billion.
The group will find itself in competition with several other large players who are understood to have expressed an interest.
