* Company valued at $8-$9 billion - banking source

* IPO could take place in H1 - source

* May list 25 percent of share capital - report

(Adds most recent financial results)

MOSCOW, Dec 21 - SUEK, Russia's largest steam coal producer, is considering a stock market flotation next year in London, three banking industry sources told Reuters on Monday.

The sources did not say how much SUEK, controlled by tycoons Andrei Melnichenko and Sergei Popov, was looking to raise, though one said the company was worth $8-$9 billion.

The same source said the listing would take place in the first half, while the others said no date had been set.

There have not been any good opportunities in this sector for a long time, and the sector is on its way up, so therefore this will be a positive story, one banker said, on condition of anonymity.

Russian aluminium company UC RUSAL is pushing ahead with a $2 billion Hong Kong IPO slated for early 2010, despite a ban on a retail tranche that has reduced the offering to little more than a Russian state bailout.

Two sources said SUEK had yet to decide which banks would lead the IPO. The company was not available for comment.

British newspaper The Independent on Sunday reported an unnamed source as saying SUEK could list 25 percent of its shares in London and Moscow in the first half of next year to raise money to fund additional projects.

SUEK wants annual coal output to reach 150 million tonnes by 2020, and achieve an installed capacity of up to 15 gigawatts at its power stations, according to its website.

It mined 96.2 million tonnes of coal last year and generated 13 gigawatts of electricity at its power stations.

The company does not provide quarterly earnings reports according to international standards.

According to Russian Accounting Standards (RAS), SUEK had a net loss of 7.4 billion roubles on sales of 92.7 billion roubles in 2008, compared to a year-earlier net profit of 8.2 billion roubles on sales of 72.7 billion roubles.

The Indpendent on Sunday said UBS, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America Merrill Lynch were all seeking to participate in the deal, as were Russian banks VTB and Renaissance Capital.

SUEK will conduct a second round of interviews with the banks this week and make a final decision shortly thereafter.

The company originally planned to sell shares to the public in 2008 but abandoned these plans because of the downturn, the paper said.

SUEK is a major shareholder in a number of Siberian and Far Eastern power companies with total generating capacity of 13 gigawatts. (Writing by Alfred Kueppers; Editing by Dmitry Sergeyev and Dan Lalor)

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