Sir Richard Branson will receive at least £255m over the next 30 years for licensing the Virgin brand name to NTL, on top of the £685m worth of cash and shares he will collect from yesterday's sale of Virgin Mobile to the cable operator.

Details of the licensing agreement, which guarantees Sir Richard 0.25 per cent of the combined group's revenues from consumer telephone, television and broadband services, or at least £8.5m a year, came as NTL finalised its long-awaited £962m bid to create a national entertainment and communications company.