Telecoms company Cable & Wireless has confirmed it had made a preliminary approach to Thus Group about a possible offer for the UK telecoms firm.

"This announcement does not amount to a firm intention to make an offer and accordingly there can be no certainty that an offer will be made," Cable & Wireless said in a statement.

Neil Rickard, research vice-president at Gartner, said the move is about gaining scale.

"This would give them extra infastructure, extra staff and extra customers. There's not much extra at Thus in terms of function that they can't do already, " he said.