* Could be first major European IPO since mid-2011

LONDON Feb 28 (Reuters) - Dutch cable company Ziggo will launch an up to 800 million euro ($1.1 billion) initial public offering (IPO) on Wednesday, IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication, reported.

Europe has seen a drought in IPO activity since the middle of last year as companies put their listing plans on ice during a period of market volatility brought on by the euro zone debt crisis.

European listings usually take around a month from launch to completion, leaving them at the mercy of a sudden change in market sentiment. Ziggo is trying a shorter process more akin to that used in the U.S., where the IPO market has remained relatively healthy.

Ziggo, whose private equity owners Cinven and Warburg Pincus delayed plans to list last year due to choppy markets, will spend around a week marketing its offering of existing shares, IFR said on Tuesday, followed by a week of bookbuilding.

The private equity firms are aiming to raise 600 million to 800 million euros from the sale of 15 to 20 percent of the company, expected to price around March 14, IFR said.

It would be the second major IPO to kick off this month, after Swiss-based DKSH, which helps companies market and distribute their goods in Asia, began marketing a planned listing last week.

DKSH is following the traditional four-week timetable however, meaning Ziggo is expected to be completed first.

Last week U.S. cable group Liberty Global, which has been touted as a potential buyer of Ziggo, said it would consider expanding in the Netherlands if the opportunity arose but it understood that Ziggo planned to IPO.

"No decision has been made on an IPO, but the company will make sure it is prepared should that decision be made," Ziggo spokesman Martijn Jonker told Reuters on Tuesday.

J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley are joint global coordinators on the offering, and joint bookrunners along with Deutsche Bank and UBS. ABN AMRO, HSBC, Nomura and Societe Generale are acting as co-lead managers.

• A Permanent Economic Emergency