Virgin Media O2 has entered exclusive talks to sell its stake in its JV tower unit, Cornerstone (CTIL), to GLIL Infrastructure.

Reuters reports that the deal could be worth £2.5 billion ($3.03bn).

The publication cites four sources familiar with the matter, noting that GLIL emerged as a frontrunner in the auction held earlier this year for the stake.

GLIL is a partnership of British pension funds which look to invest in core infrastructure opportunities.

Virgin Media O2, which is owned by Liberty Global and Telefónica as part of a merger between Virgin Media and O2 in 2021, owns half of CTIL, which maintains and operates its mobile infrastructure in the UK.

The other half of CTIL is owned by Vodafone-backed Vantage Towers.

Virgin wants to sell its 25 percent stake in CTIL, partially to help fund its fiber broadband rollout.

Reuters reports that, if negotiations are concluded successfully, a deal for a minority stake of less than 25 percent could be announced as early as next week, according to two of the sources.

CTIL is the UK's largest tower infrastructure company in the UK with 14,200 masts and about 1,400 smaller microsites and has committed to expanding this out to a further 1,200 new sites by 2025.

A host of telcos have spun off their tower infrastructure of late, notably Vodafone with its Vantage Towers unit and Deutsche Telekom through its GD Towers unit.