Digicel set to double annual profits to $440m

Denis O'Brien's Caribbean-based mobile phone operation Digicel is set to double its profit before tax and finance costs to $440 million (€296 million) for the 12 months to the end of March.

Digicel's chief financial officer Lawrence Hickey told The Irish Timesyesterday that the mobile phone group recorded earnings before interest, tax and depreciation of $220 million in the year to the end of March 2007. "We are on track to double that in [fiscal] 2008," Mr Hickey said. "It's been a good year for us."

He said the improved profitability was primarily the result of its operations in Haiti and Trinidad becoming "EBITDA positive" for the first time during the current financial year, which closes on March 31st.

Digicel launched in Haiti in May 2006 and had 1.8 million subscribers within 12 months, making it the group's biggest market in the Caribbean. Mobile penetration in the impoverished country grew from 5 per cent at the time of Digicel's launch to 35 per cent in 2007.

"All of our other established markets have [also] continued to improve their financial performance," Mr Hickey added.

The Irish-born Digicel executive said the mobile group was on target to record revenues of $1.4-$1.5 billion for the year to the end of March.

Digicel yesterday said it had more than six million subscribers in the Caribbean at the end of December, compared with 4.1 million a year earlier.

The company has invested $1.9 million across the region, with capital expenditure amounting to about $360 million in the current year.

Digicel was last month awarded a mobile licence to operate a GSM network in the British Virgin Islands, making it the group's 24th market in the region.

Its figures for the Caribbean include El Salvador but not its other assets in central America.

These are managed by a separate entity, Digicel Central America Holdings Ltd. It was recently granted a licence to operate a GSM network in Honduras and is pursuing licences in Panama and Nicaragua.