Nigeria, July 16 -- Airtel Africa secured a key legal authorisation from a UK court for a capital reduction aimed at beefing up its distributable reserves for future shareholder returns, the London-based company announced Wednesday.

The approval sets Africa's second-biggest mobile operator on the last rung of the process, having cleared the hurdle of winning shareholders' support for the move at its annual general meeting last week.

The capital reduction entails cancelling Airtel Africa's capital redemption reserve to boost distributable reserves, which are vital to the corporation's prospects of delivering future rewards to shareholders.

That can be anything from dividends to distributions and buybacks of its own shares.

A capital re...