O'Brien... flew into Port-of-Spain to complain about the pace of negotiations by the government, to allow Digicel to operate in Trinidad and Tobago

Even as the mobile provider looks forward to a year-end start-up in Trinidad & Tobago informed telecom sources insist the Irish-owned company is up for sale or looking for a deep-pocketed equity partner.

It is being linked to an Egyptian conglomerate.
Several sources told the Business Guardian that the Digicel ownership structure has changed or is changing.

"They have reached a conditional agreement with a Middle Eastern entity for the purchase of the Caribbean properties but it is contingent on the turn-up of Trinidad and Haiti and the integration of the Cingular properties," said one source.
In June, Digicel - in partnership with Onefone - became the first company to be awarded a licence to operate a GSM network in Haiti.

Only one more cellular licence is needed before the Irish-owned Digicel can claim to meet its goal: to establish a seamless Pan-Caribbean wireless network.

The T&T licence.

And it's not as elusive as it first appeared five years ago when its chairman, Denis O' Brien, in partnership with CL Financial, made a bid for a T&T mobile licence in a process which was subsequently scuppered.

In fact, by November 15, Minister of Public Administration and Information, Dr Lenny Saith, is expected to announce the award of concessions to Digicel and Laqtel.

Where will that take the company?

After its multimillion dollar acquisition of Cingular's Caribbean and Bermuda assets in June, Digicel now has a foothold into Bermuda, Anguilla, St Kitts & Nevis and Dominica and has received regulatory approval for the acquisition of Cingular's operations in Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent & the Grenadines.

The company said it is looking forward to receiving regulatory approval in the remaining markets of Barbados, the Cayman Islands and Antigua & Barbuda in the near future.

"Digicel's agreement with Cingular Wireless also includes the planned acquisition of Cingular's licences in the French West Indies islands of St Martin, Guadeloupe, Martinique and St Bart's," the company added.

It would be difficult to put a price on the Digicel's assets but its investments in the region have exceeded US$600 million.
The company has already spent US$15,750,003 (an estimated TT$100 million) in T&T for a five-block licence and announced that it intended to spend about TT$1.2 billion on its GSM network.

In a brief interview with the Business Guardian on Tuesday, Digicel's T&T director Anthony Fifi said HCL's interest in Digicel was a simple investment opportunity. Fifi is the managing director of Home Construction Ltd.

Asked whether he thought Digicel would sell its Caribbean assets, Fifi said, "I won't say that he wouldn't sell. He is a businessman," referring to Digicel boss O'Brien.

"Even if he were to sell, I don't think it would be to the detriment of the Caribbean or the public," he noted.

He said the mobile operator would choose to partner with a larger operator, which would have better economies of scale.
"O'Brien is focused on building a quality network and providing quality service," he said.

Fifi had a face-to-face meeting with O'Brien as recently as Monday when the Portugal-based millionaire flew into Port-of-Spain for talks on the progress of Digicel's application to operate in Trinidad and Tobago.

O'Brien's speedy visit came even as Prime Minister Patrick Manning's Whitehall office was in the process of dispatching to the line minister, Lenny Saith, a letter of complaint that Digicel had directed to Manning.

Digicel had complained in its letter about the pace of the interconnection negotiations with majority state-owned TSTT.

It was O'Brien's second visit in a month. He met with the Telecommunications Authority on September 20.
If O'Brien decides to sell Digicel, it would not be the first time he has disposed of a cellular licence and earned a very handsome profit.

In the early '90s, O'Brien acquired Ireland's first mobile licence for a fraction of what he sold it for several years later, earning him much of his £318 million fortune.

However, Digicel denied that the company was looking for a possible buyer.

Responding to an e-mail from the Business Guardian, Digicel said "although as a policy we do not comment on rumours and speculation, we can clarify that Digicel is not for sale to Orascom or any other entity".

Profits, debt increasing

Digicel's total assets are estimated at about US$600 million.
Its total debt now approximates to about US$400 million as of 2005, up from about US$310 million in 2004.

The company spent millions in acquiring Cingular assets and investing in infrastructure in T&T over the past year or so.

Digicel's operating profit has moved from a loss in 2002 of about US$25 million to about US$40 million in 2003, dropping in 2004 to about US$26 million and then surging ahead in 2005 to about US$95 million.

Speaking with the Caribbean Business Report last night Digicel's (Jamaica) CEO David Hall said: "There is no merit in this article that appeared in the Trinidad Guardian. In fact it is complete rubbish.

"Digicel plans to be in 15 countries by the end of March 2006. We are totally dedicated to rolling out in both Trinidad and Haiti and all the markets that were recently purchased fron Cingular Caribbean. Denis O'Brien has made it quite clear that over the next three years, Digicel is focused on acquiring licences in the Caribbean region."

Speaking from Barbados, Former Group CEO, Seamus Lynch said: "I would say that report is fictitious. We will continue to roll out in the Caribbean and build our businesses. We may well be here for another 50 years. Profit figures of US$95 million for this year are far from accurate.
This weekend I am off to St Kitts, Dominica and Anguilla to see how best we can provide services there. We expect to rollout in Trinidad by November 30. We are very much a Caribbean company and we are here for the long haul. This story that came out of Trinidad may well be some mischief making."

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