Kuwait Telecommunications Company (Viva) has started talks with banks about raising a $400m loan facility.

The deal will be used to finance the expansion of the firm, which launched in 2008. One Kuwait-based source says the company is still in the early stages of work on the loan, and is currently seeking banks to arrange it.

Both local and international banks are understood to have been approached to take part in the financing.

Viva is Kuwait’s third mobile phone operator and is part owned by Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Telecoms Company (STC).