Vodafone is preparing for an initial public offering of its Qatari subsidiary, with a sale of about 20 per cent of the shares expected before the end of the year.

In December, a consortium led by the UK-based operator won a licence to break the mobile phone monopoly in Qatar, one of the world's richest nations, seeing off competition from Verizon Communications of the US and Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates.