UPDATE 1-Airtel Africa looks at $1 billion London listing

(Adds details on valuation, financials)
LONDON, May 28 (Reuters) - Airtel Africa Ltd, a subsidiary
of Indian telecoms group Bharti Airtel Ltd BRTI.NS , is
considering a stock market flotation in London, it said on
Tuesday, part of efforts to expand its data and mobile money
services across Africa.
The company is aiming to raise around $1 billion in a June
equity offering, a source close to the deal said. Airtel
operates in 14 African markets including Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Uganda and
Zambia.
Last year, the telecom operator raised $1.25 billion from
six global investors including SoftBank Group Corp 9984.T ,
Warburg Pincus LLC and Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd.
A further $200 million was raised in January from the Qatar
Investment Authority (QIA), valuing the company just under $5
billion.
Airtel Africa is looking to trade on the main market of the
London Stock Exchange LSE.L , using its premium listing
segment, which has more stringent rules than the European
Union's minimum requirements, and sell 25 percent of new shares
to reduce existing debt.
The cash injection from existing investors has already
helped to reduce Airtel Africa's net debt to $4 billion in
March, compared to $7.7 billion in the previous year.
Its net income reached $83 million in the year to March,
compared to a net loss of $49 million a year earlier.
The telecoms operator is also seeking to list on the
Nigerian Stock Exchange.
"The 14 countries where we operate offer strong GDP growth
potential and have young and fast-growing populations, low
customer and data penetration and inadequate banking
infrastructure," chief executive Raghunath Mandava said in a
statement.
"These fast-growing markets provide us a great opportunity
to grow both our telecom and payments businesses."
Indian owner Bharti Airtel last year ditched the IPO of
African mobile phone mast firm Helios Towers, without giving any
reason.
A source said at the time that the expected IPO price was
too low for shareholders who had been valuing the firm at as
much as $2.8 billion.
Proceeds from the European IPO market have fallen to their
lowest in more than a decade in the first three months of 2019,
according to Refinitiv data. Airtel Africa's debut on the London market would follow that
of Middle Eastern payments companies Finablr FINF.L and
Network International NETW.L , which started trading over the
past couple of months.
The company has appointed JP Morgan JPM.N , Citigroup Inc
C.N , BofA Merrill Lynch BAC.N , Absa Group Limited, Barclays
Bank PLC BARC.L , HSBC HSBA.L , BNP Paribas BNPP.PA , Goldman
Sachs International GS.N and Standard Bank Group Ltd SBKJ.J
as advisers.