Africell Holding, the largest mobile phone operator in Sierra Leone and Gambia, is courting US private equity firms including Providence Equity Partners, KKR and Carlyle Group, hoping to sell a stake in the company, which is valued by the owner at up to $1.5 billion.

Ziad Dalloul, who is based in Lebanon, founded Africell in 2000. The company also operates in Democratic Republic of the Congo and this year bought the operations of Orange in Uganda. Providence is particularly interested, Dalloul said in an interview in London.