Shares of British telecoms group Vodafone, which has business interests in Africa, rose on Friday amid reports that US mobile operator AT&T could buy the firm.

Apart from having operations in markets such as Europe and Australia, Vodafone has stakes respectively in South Africa and Kenya’s largest mobile operators: Vodacom and Safaricom.

AT&T, meanwhile, is the second largest mobile provider in the US after Verizon Wireless.

Intense competition from Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile in the US is resulting in AT&T potentially looking elsewhere for growth.

Reuters says AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson has said there is a "huge opportunity" to invest in mobile broadband in Europe.

AT&T has also reportedly considered options including Vodafone and Britain's largest mobile carrier EE, a joint venture of Orange and Deutsche Telekom, according to Reuters.

Shares in Vodafone were up around 2.9% to 231 pence, the biggest gainers on London’s FTSE 100 index of blue-chip stocks.