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Telefonica and Liberty Global have been working with advisers on the sale of up to half of their combined 50% stake in Cornerstone. Vodafone (VOD.L) owns the rest of the business through its Frankfurt-based subsidiary Vantage Towers (VTWRn.H). Spokespeople for Telefonica, Liberty Global, Virgin Media O2 and GLIL declined to comment. Cornerstone, established in 2012, is Britain's largest tower company, managing more than 20,000 sites, according to the company's website. In recent years infrastructure and private equity investors have competed for slices in some of the largest tower deals, including Deutsche Telekom's sale of a majority stake in GD Towers, because of their stable cash yield and long-term contracts.

Persons: Phil Noble, Amy, Jo Crowley, Andres Gonzalez, Paul Sandle, Helen Popper Our Organizations: REUTERS, Virgin Media O2, Liberty Global, Telefonica, Cornerstone, Vodafone, Deutsche, GD, Thomson Locations: Blackpool, Britain, Frankfurt

Data centres are facilities that host IT systems and applications. In April, Brookfield Infrastructure acquired French data centre group Data4 in a deal said to have valued the company at close to 3.5 billion euros, including debt. Asterion formed Nabiax in 2019 through the acquisition of 11 data centres from Telefonica across Spain and Latin America. In March, the group sold its Latin American operations to British infrastructure fund Actis, with a view to focusing on its home market. A sale of Nabiax could help Telefonica pay down debt, a focus for the Spanish telecoms giant.

Persons: Nabiax, Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro, Amy, Jo Crowley, Andres Gonzalez, Jesus Aguado, John O'Donnell, Louise Heavens Organizations: Reuters, Infrastructure, Asterion Industrial Partners, BBVA, Citigroup, Telefonica, Brookfield Infrastructure, Thomson Locations: Madrid, Telefonica, Spain, Latin America, British, London

LONDON, May 4 (Reuters) - U.S. buyout house Blackstone (BX.N) is weighing options for Dutch merchant bank NIBC, including a possible sale, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Blackstone has also been considering potential acquisitions in the absence of a sale, one person added. The Hague-based NIBC offers financing for industries such as automotive, commercial real estate, infrastructure and shipping, as well as retail mortgages. It has been exiting non-core businesses, including deal advisory and leveraged finance, in a bid to streamline its operations. The group had 22.8 billion euros of assets on its balance sheet at the end of last year and an equity value of around 2 billion euros ($2.21 billion), according to its 2022 annual accounts, which showed a profit of 179 million euros excluding non-recurring expenses.

In addition to mergers and acquisitions, the options include a sale of the bank and an initial public offering (IPO), the people said. Officials for Co-op Bank, Aldermore, OneSavings Bank, Paragon and Shawbrook declined to comment. Co-op Bank had an equity value of close to 1.3 billion pounds ($1.61 billion) as of the end of December, based on its latest annual accounts. It had more than 28 billion pounds of assets on its balance sheet and reported a profit before tax of 132.6 million pounds for 2022. Later that year, Co-op Bank made an offer for domestic rival TSB Group, which was rejected by Spanish parent Banco Sabadell (SABE.MC).

Brookfield has prevailed over other investment firms in an auction that Data4's majority owner, Axa Investment Managers, held for the company, the sources said on Friday. If negotiations and financing arrangements are concluded successfully, a deal could be announced as early as next week, the sources added. The sources cautioned that there remained a chance that no deal would be completed and asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. Brookfield declined to comment, while representatives for Data4 and AXA Investments, a division of French insurer AXA (AXAF.PA), did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Headquartered in Paris, Data4 operates at least 25 data centers across France, Italy, Spain and Luxembourg, according to its website.

CTIL is attracting interest from pension funds including Britain's largest, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which has started preliminary work on a potential offer, two of the sources said. Telefonica, Liberty Global and USS declined to comment. A number of telecom towers deals in Europe have seen infrastructure investors compete for a slice of the continent’s largest towers networks partly because of their stable cash yield and long-term contracts. Vodafone (VOD.L) owns 50% of CTIL through its Frankfurt-based subsidiary Vantage Towers (VTWRn.DE), and is not planning to cut its holding, the people said. Telefonica and Liberty Global do not plan to ask Vantage Towers to bid for the holding for competitive reasons, according to the sources.

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