Helios Towers Africa, backed by financier George Soros (pictured), is looking to raise around $500 million in order to take part in an upcoming auction of African tower infrastructure owned by India’s Bharti Airtel.

According to the Financial Times, Providence Equity Partners – a US buyout group specialising in telecoms and media investments – is in talks to take part in the fund-raising. A deal, said FT sources, could be clinched in the next few weeks.

Other investors in Helios, which owns over 3,500 towers in Africa to help operators cut costs through infrastructure sharing, include former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Jacob Rothschild is another high-profile Helios backer.

Airtel’s tower infrastructure in Africa is attracting interest from other firms. Names mentioned include Nigeria-based IHS Towers and UK-headquartered Eaton Towers. Eaton Towers operates more than 1,500 towers in Ghana, Uganda and South Africa.

America Tower, a US-based infrastructure group, is also expected to be in the running.

The FT speculates that the auction of Airtel’s tower infrastructure in Africa could raise as much as $2 billion. Airtel has operations in 17 African countries.

Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel, said earlier this month that the Indian firm plans to plough an annual $1 billion into its existing African operations over the “next few years” rather than enter new markets.

The continent, however, has proven operationally difficult. Since entering Africa in 2010, after buying Zain’s African operations for $9 billion, Airtel has yet to see a profit there.

Airtel’s international business, the bulk of which is accounted for by Africa – but also includes operations in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka – reported a net loss (before exceptional items) of INR38.8 billion ($650 million) in the 2014 fiscal year. The loss the year before totalled INR26.6 billion.