LONDON (AP) — Northern Rock PLC is today to name a consortium led by British tycoon Richard Branson's Virgin Group as its preferred bidder to buy the ailing mortgage lender, media reports said.

Sky News and the British Broadcasting Corp. reported that Northern Rock will make a formal announcement about its intentions today. Efforts to contact Northern Rock yesterday were unsuccessful.

The bank has received 10 offers from suitors interested in taking over the business, which suffered a catastrophic downturn during the recent global credit freeze.

The BBC said Virgin's bid, which has been approved by the Treasury — the company's chief creditor — includes an immediate repayment of £11 billion ($22 billion) of the £25 billion ($50 billion) the bank borrowed from the state as the crisis took hold.

Investors in the bank have said they would resist any bid that did not offer shareholders value for money. The government has the option of placing the bank in administration if a deal cannot be struck — the worst-case scenario for stockholders in the bank.

On Saturday, Philip Richards, chief executive of hedge fund RAB Capital, which holds a seven percent stake in Northern Rock, backed the Virgin offer, which would allow shareholders to retain around a third of the business and also offer them a share of any future profits made by the new owners.

Virgin's bid would require the postponement or cancellation of interest on the delayed repayment — effectively subsidising shareholders at a cost to the public, something the government is under great pressure to avoid.

Opposition lawmakers have called for a sale to be completed swiftly, arguing that as long as the crisis at the bank continues more and more public money would be used up to keep it afloat.

The BBC reported that officials from the Treasury, the Bank of England and regulator the Financial Services Authority spent the weekend meeting with potential bidders to hammer out a deal for the stricken lender. In the end Virgin's bid, which would see Northern Rock re-branded as Virgin Money, was preferred to that of US buyout specialists JC Flowers, the BBC said.

Northern Rock's troubles began in the summer when it became Britain's biggest casualty in the global credit freeze. It was unable to access funds in the wholesale money market after banks became fearful of lending to one another as uncertainty over exposure to high-risk US mortgage debt mounted.

Northern Rock's value plummeted from more than £5.2 billion ($10.7 billion) in February to a value of just £360 million ($720 million) as spooked investors rushed to withdraw their savings, leading to the first run on a British bank in more than a century.