The planned initial public offering in February with private equity fund Hellman & Friedman was first covered by French newspaper Les Echos, with Reuters since reporting that GTT could fetch a market cap of up to $US2.4 billion ($A2.56 billion).

Last year there was speculation that a consortium of Korean shipbuilders wanted to make a bid to acquire GTT.

GTT is reportedly expecting to double its net profit to around $271 million this year.