The sale could be the first of its kind for Airtel, following the failure of a similar mission nearly two years ago.
According to local reports, Airtel has selected seven foreign banks across Asia, Europe and the US to arrange meetings with investors which are, as yet, undisclosed.
The banks include Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered and UBS.
Sarvjit Dhillon, chief financial officer of Bharti Enterprises, the parent company of Bharti Airtel, told Reuters that it hoped to raise at least $1 billion in the fiscal year ending in March 2013.
The discussions follow Airtel’s recent restructuring of its Indian operations and if the bond sale completes, the company will become the second-largest private sector borrower to profit from the global bond markets this year, after Reliance’s bond in January.
