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Virgin Media investor calls for talks after poor Q1 results - report
LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Virgin Media investor Franklin Mutual Advisers is seeking talks with the cable group after it posted poor first-quarter results, according to newspaper reports which follow a filing by Franklin with the Securities Exchange Commission last week. Franklin said in its filing that it may want to talk to Virgin Media about its strategic direction, corporate governance and management. The investor now holds 9.4 pct of the group, making it the biggest investor behind Sir Richard Branson with 11 pct. Last week the group delivered an operating loss of 15.3 mln stg in the first three months of 2007, compared to a 9.2 mln stg profit in the fourth quarter of 2006, after spending some 25 mln stg on advertising after changing its name from NTL (nasdaq: NTLI - news - people ) in early February. kathy.sandler@thomson.com ks/hjp COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News. Neither the Subscriber nor AFX News warrants the completeness or accuracy of the Service or the suitability of the Service as a trading aid and neither accepts any liability for losses howsoever incurred. The content on this site, including news, quotes, data and other information, is provided by AFX News and its third party content providers for your personal information only, and neither AFX News nor its third party content providers shall be liable for any errors, inaccuracies or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
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Virgin Media announced weak results last week, in part due to competition from Sky. Virgin Media lost 47,000 customers from January to March 2007, while Sky gained 51,000 customers in the same time period. 

Franklin Mutual Advisers, which has 9.4% of the Virgin Media shares (Sir Richard Branson owns 11%) wants to have a meeting with Virgin Media about its "strategic direction, corporate governance and management". Franklin Mutual Advisers is known to take great interest in the companies in which it invests.

This has caused many of the other investors of Virgin Media to demanding meetings with the management of the company. The demands are due to confusion among shareholders at the direction in which the company is heading, ''The Guardian'' reports. After the attempt to buy ITV was stopped last year, the shareholders think that Virgin Media may lose its battle with Sky and TalkTalk.

Another issue causing concerns amongst investors is the £25.2 million pay cheques for the top seven executives of Virgin Media.  Virgin Media reported a £15.3 million loss last year.