Digicel Debt placement

New Digicel placement
Published: Wednesday | July 1, 2009

Digicel Limited (DL), an affiliate of Digicel Group Limited, on Tuesday offered up for sale an additional US$250 million of its 12% senior notes, in a private placement in New York. This will be used partly to finance future unspecificied acquisitions.
The notes mature in 2014, alongside another US$350 million already issued. The debt is guaranteed by 9 of the Irish company's subsidiaries, including Digicel Jamaica.
“We are offering an aggregate of US$160,000,000 of new notes," said DL's offer document.
Denis O'Brien, indirectly owns 95 per cent of our common shares. Denis O'Brien, who also controls 100 per cent of Digicel Group - ultimate parent of Digicel Limited - has since the company's formation in 2001 showed a marked preference for debt to finance the mobile provider, whose holdings extend across the Caribbean and into Central America.
Digicel Debts
Digicel Limited's debts, reached US$1.8 billion at March 31, 2009, or 2.68 times EBITDA of US$676.6 million. A portion of the DL debt, US$75 million, is owed to Digicel Group Limited.
Digicel Limited, a US$2.27 billion operation incorporated in Bermuda, also reported consolidated net profit of US$166 million from revenue of US$1.7 billion.
However, the company also disclosed that subsidiary Digicel Holdings Central America Limited has a big loss of US$176.6 million.
More losses coming
"We may continue to incur losses in the near future," the company said.