UK market-leader Everything Everywhere is reportedly in talks with banks to finance paying back loans to parent firms Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom, which would mark the first step to establishing itself as an independent entity.

According to the Financial Times, the operator has lined up seven banks to lend it as much as £875 million to repay the loans to its parents, which the newspaper says would be one of the largest new borrowing facilities in the UK this year.

Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom each hold 50 percent of Everything Everywhere following last year’s merger of their respective UK networks, T-Mobile UK and Orange UK. The operator still uses both brands.

If the operator pays back the loans it is thought that the next stage could see the eventual exit of the two shareholders via an initial public offering of shares or sale, though the report notes that “there is no suggestion that either is on the table at present.”

Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom funded the company with loans of about £1.25 billion in total. This sum is expected to fall to about £400 million in total after the planned financing, the report says.

The banks lined up to provide the debt facility reportedly include HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Lloyds, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi and JPMorgan.

The report notes that Everything Everywhere will also use the relationship with the banks to help it tap the bond market next year to raise as much as £800 million for “future corporate investment,” according to banking sources. The operator will also raise cash next year via the sale of some spectrum, a requirement of the 2010 merger.

The integration of the two networks has gathered pace in the last few months, which has seen new CEO Olaf Swantee (pictured) streamline his senior management team and announce plans to reduce headcount at the firm by 550 (about 4 percent of its workforce).