Digicel Suffers Falling Revenue In Main Markets. Blames Sliding Dollar

Heavyweight Caribbean telecommunications company Digicel has reported a slip in its performance for the three months ended September 2013. The Irish Times reports, that according to their recent financials;

Total group revenues at Digicel, the mobile phone company owned by businessman Denis O’Brien, fell by US$7 million to US$691 million in the three months to the end of September, according to financial statements sent to the company’s bondholders.

This fall in revenue came despite slight growth in the company. The report continues;

Despite underlying growth of 2 per cent, the company blamed a fall against the dollar in the currencies of Haiti, Papua New Guinea and Jamaica for the dip in sales.

Its performance dipped sharply in Haiti, the impoverished country that is one of Digicel’s main markets. Its subscriber numbers there fell by 6 per cent, while sales fell by 11 per cent to US$126 million, with a 9 per cent reduction when the effects of currency are stripped out.

And in Jamaica, its first market and the place where it all started;

In Jamaica, another of its main markets, revenues fell by 9 per cent to US$107 million. Digicel said its underlying revenues had grown by 1 per cent, and added the Jamaican dollar had fallen by 12 per cent.

Other numbers in this report

• Interest charges of US$104 million on loan notes
• Project finance debts of US$5.675 billion
• Capitalised costs of US$25 million in relation to a network of mobile masts it assembled during bidding for Myanmar