O'Brien Gets Funding For Caribbean Expansion

Digicel Could Be Moving Into U.S. Market Soon

Irish businessman and entrepreneur, Denis O'Brien, has raised $150M in a bond issue for his Caribbean mobile operator Digicel, as he prepares the rapidly growing company for its next phase of development.

Digicel has expanded rapidly in markets such as Trinidad and Tobago and Haiti, where it has an estimated customer base of around two million people.

However O'Brien is thought to be interested in a move into the US market, which he sees as the next step in his company's expansion.

There was further good news for Digicel last week when it announced it had secured improved lending rates on $600M worth of loans it has with a number of international banks.

Access to the revenue will play a key role in Digicel's expected expansion into the Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) service, which it is rumoured to be going ahead with.

Entry into the MVNO market will give Digicel a foothold in the US.

If it does go ahead with the service it will lease airtime from a network owner, and sell it on to individual subscribers.

Earlier this year O'Brien said Digicel was on course to take in annual revenues of $1B within two years.

However the company has expanded much more quickly than anticipated in the Caribbean market since opening there in April.

That quicker than expected progress has led to an aggressive strategy of expansion, not just in the Caribbean but in the US.

"We will continue to aggressively expand our services in Trinidad & Tobago and Haiti, as we have seen tremendous acceptance by our mobile customers in these markets which, in turn, has led us to significantly increase our investment in both these countries," said Digicel chief executive Colm Delves.

At present the country is now in 20 different markets.

Denis O'Brien has amassed a fortune through telecommunications over the past five years.

In 2000 he sold Esat Digifone to BT for £2.5B, with a subscribers base of around 230,000 people.

His current Digicel enterprise has a Caribbean market of more than three times that, estimated to be around 700,000.