The mobile towers giants being carved out of Vodafone will start trading in Frankfurt within weeks.

The FTSE 100 mobile operator said Vantage Towers would begin trading before the end of March, marking one of Europe's biggest listings this year.

Vodafone will continue to own a majority stake and be one of the biggest customers of Vantage, which could be worth more than €20bn (£17bn).

Selling a stake will bring in up to €4bn (£3.4bn) for Vodafone and help pay down its €43bn debt pile.

The move is part of a growing trend by telecoms operators to milk their infrastructure assets as investors seek their stable long-term returns.

Vantage aims to capitalise on huge demand for data, and the race to upgrade mobile infrastructure to 5G, by increasing the size of its tower network and renting out capacity to mobile operators.

That includes plans to increase its tenancy ratio - the amount of operators renting space on its network - from 1.38 times to 1.5 times.

Vantage chief executive Vivek Badrinath said the Frankfurt listing would "set the foundations" for the next stage of growth.

"With our superior grid, inflation-linked revenue –secured for the long term – and our strong balance sheet, we have a powerful base to move forward and support our customers’ need for better and more extensive connectivity across the continent,” he added.

With 82,000 towers across 10 countries, Vantage is either the leader or second-biggest player in nine of those markets.

It makes Vantage a challenger to American Towers and Cellnex, the Spanish masts company that has been buying up European telecoms infrastructure.

Three UK owner Hutchinson sold its European towers infrastructure to Cellnex for £9bn in November.

Vodafone announced last month that its stake in the UK mobile masts business Cornerstone would also be moved into Vantage.

It is offloading the 50pc slice of its joint venture with O2 owner Telefonica as it cashes in on the rising value of mobile phone infrastructure.

Vantage Towers plans to pay dividends worth €280m (£251m) by July this year.

The announcement came as Vodafone separately warned that Virgin Media's £31bn merger with mobile operator O2 could lead to a "substantial lessening of competition" in the UK telecoms market.

In a submission to the Competition and Market Authority's investigation, Vodafone said network investment and customers would both suffer because the combined company would have the "incentive and ability" to shut down competition with rivals.

Pay-TV giant Sky also raised concerns that the deal could "pose a real threat" to Sky Mobile, which runs on the O2 network.

In response to the CMA, Virgin Media and O2's respective owners Liberty Global and Telefonica said the deal was "strongly pro-competitive" and would intensify competition with BT.

Shares in Vodafone fell 3.4pc to 125.5p.