MTC, the Kuwaiti telecoms group, will announce plans today for an initial public offering in London. The £14.9 billion telecoms group, which is Vodafone’s partner in the Middle East, hopes to float MTCI, its international vehicle, in London in 2008.

In a visit to London today, Saad al-Barrak, MTC’s chief executive, is expected to outline plans to raise about €3 billion (£2 billion).

He will also unveil plans for a rebranding, under which the group will drop the Vodafone name from its operations in Bahrain and Kuwait. The move is thought to have been prompted by the Kuwaiti company’s desire to further distinguish itself as a strong player in its own right. The group will also announce its intention to compete for licences against Vodafone.

A decision by MTC, which has more than 30 million customers, to plump for London would mark the latest coup for the London Stock Exchange in winning business from rival foreign operators. A stream of overseas-based companies have joined the London exchange, including 22 from Russia.

Over the weekend it emerged that Chalva Tchigirinsky, a Russian billionaire, was hoping to arrange a London flotation of KTT, a company holding an estimated £5 billion of property assets. It is expected that MTC will use the proceeds from its planned float to help to fund its expansion.

A move to list in London could also help the Kuwaiti group to heighten its profile outside its traditional emerging markets territories. MTC is listed on the Kuwait stock exchange, but the international division is currently private.

The company was established in 1983 and was one of Kuwait’s first mobile operators. It is a leading emerging markets player, with mobile operations in six Middle Eastern and fourteen African countries, stretching from Sierra Leone to Madagascar to Iraq.

In 2005 MTC snapped up Celtel, Africa’s third-biggest mobile company, and MTCI was created as part of that deal.

This year MTC paid more than $6 billion (£3 billion) to secure Saudi Arabia’s third mobile licence. The bid was more than $1.5 billion above the closest rival offer in an auction that included Prince Alwaleed, the Saudi billionaire investor.

An agreement with Vodafone enabling MTC to use the Vodafone brand in Kuwait and Bahrain was put in place in 2002.

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