Merrill Lynch is favourite to land a multi-billion euro debt-financing mandate from Klesch-Liberty Media, the investment consortium that is buying cable assets from Deutsche Telekom in a record deal.

Klesch-Liberty Media last Friday signed a letter of intent to buy a 55% stake in the cable assets in eight German regions from Deutsche Telekom. Neither side disclosed the purchase price because Deutsche Telekom is said to be sensitive about saying how much it is making from the sale. But sources close to the deal estimated the price at €5 to €6bn.