Latest news with #Digicel
Irish Times
13-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Digicel's €2bn refinancing
More than two years after bondholders moved to take over Digicel, the Caribbean-based telecoms company founded by Denis O'Brien is on track to refinance $2.3 billion (€2 billion) off borrowings by May 2026, a year ahead of schedule, according to Fitch Ratings. In a notable move, Fitch has awarded the business the highest credit rating in six years following a series of debt restructurings. Joe Brennan reports. In the week the Government brought in sweeping changes to the rental market in an effort to alleviate the housing crisis, John FitzGerald runs his rule over the plan and highlights the need for private investment in the rental market. In Agenda, Martin Wall delves into the debate around increasing pay for top executives at Irish commercial semi-State companies, and why there is a move to hike their pay. In the interview, Ian Curran meets Aine Kennedy, the founder of Smooth to discuss how she has brought her company from social media sensation to the shelves of some of the top department stores in Europe. READ MORE Why do we as a society continue to deal with a system that does little to cater to households with both parents working? Margaret E Ward looks at what could be changed. Irish businesses are much less optimistic about the future than they were in late 2024, according to Azets Ireland, suggesting a 'silent slowdown' in the economy may be under way. Ian Curran reports. The Department of Social Protection has been fined €550,000 after data protection watchdogs found 'a number of deficiencies ' in its compliance with European data privacy rules concerning the use of facial scans in issuing Public Services Cards. Ciara O'Brien has the details. Ciara also reports, along with Barry O'Halloran, that disruptive passengers who are removed from Ryanair flights will now be slapped with a €500 fine by the airline. Ryanair has introduced the charge in an attempt to deter unruly behaviour on board flights, an issue it said affects the entire industry. Staying with Ryanair, group chief executive Michael O'Leary's total pay topped €3.8 million last year. Gordon Deegan has read the firm's annual report showing the data. Joint provisional liquidators have been appointed by the High Court to Dublin company Frank&Bear Limited, amid alleged misappropriation of funds. Ray Managh reports. In Smart Money, Cliff Taylor looks at how a Government move to pull the plug on a housing development could have big implications for its plans to deliver thousands of social homes through public-private partnership. Big US multinationals will be slow to heed president Donald Trump's demands to bring operations back to the country because of 'the chaos' currently existing in Washington, the head of Ireland's biggest business group has said. Mark Hennessy was there.
Irish Times
13-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Digicel ‘poised to refinance €2bn early' as it wins highest credit rating in years
Digicel, the Caribbean-based telecoms company founded by Denis O'Brien , is on track to refinance $2.3 billion (€2 billion) of borrowings by May 2026, a year ahead of schedule, according to Fitch Ratings, as it awarded the business the highest credit rating in six years following a series of debt restructurings. Fitch moved this week to give Digicel's main financing entity a credit rating of B. While this is five levels deep into what is known as junk status, it is the most favourable assessment of the group's creditworthiness since 2019. Meanwhile, S&P Global, another leading ratings firm, has assigned a similar rating in recent weeks to Digicel, forecasting that its earnings grew for a second straight financial year to the end of March. Mr O'Brien saw his stake in the business reduced to 10 per cent early last year as a consortium of bondholders led by PGIM, Contrarian Capital Management, and GoldenTree Asset Management took control of Digicel in January 2024 as they swapped $1.7 billion of its borrowings for a 90 per cent holding. It marked the group's third debt restructuring in five years. READ MORE 'Fitch expects the company to fully refinance its main debts (term loan and secured notes) due in 2027 by May 2026,' the ratings firm said in a statement. 'The ratings reflect Digicel's improved capital structure post-restructuring and expected successful refinancing of its 2027 secured debt, which reduces leverage and enhances debt maturity and liquidity profiles.' [ Digicel plans redundancies across seven markets in efficiency drive Opens in new window ] Digicel enjoys operating profit margins of about 40 per cent across its 25 markets, which are mainly duopolies. 'However, weak operating environments in markets like Haiti and currency depreciation risks offset these strengths,' Fitch said. S&P said it expects Digicel to refinance the 2027 debt 'in a timely manner'. The company also has $455 million of unsecured notes that fall due in 2028. The prospect of Digicel carrying out its first big refinancing since the 2024 debt restructuring has been boosted by the US department of justice confirming to the group in April that it has ended an investigation that was looking into whether the business had breached foreign bribery laws. Will rent reform make building apartments viable? Listen | 40:12 Digicel said in November that it had made a voluntary disclosure to the department of information 'relating to possible violations of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act' (FCPA). The Digicel disclosure to US authorities is said to relate to activities in Haiti, which has again descended into chaos in recent years as criminal gangs have grown in power. Armed gangs currently control of almost all of the country's capital, Port-au-Prince. The decision by US authorities to close the case had been due to a combination of information gleaned during the investigation as well as a move by US president Donald Trump in early February to pause FCPA enforcement actions. The US attorney general issued new enforcement guidelines this week, with an overriding theme that any decisions to pursue investigations must be focused on helping US interests abroad. S&P estimates that Digicel posted earnings before interest, tax, deprecation and amortisation (Ebitda) of $800 million for the year to the end of March. This would represent a 4.4 per cent increase on the result for the previous year. It also sees the group resuming modest dividends – of $16 million – for the first time in a decade. 'We assess Digicel's business risk profile as weak, reflecting its solid position in markets that have high barriers to entry, but are exposed to substantial macroeconomic volatility,' said S&P.
Hindustan Times
04-06-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Killer gangs are inches from ruling all of Haiti
The collapse of Haiti's government in April last year was a challenge but also an opportunity. An interim government called the Transitional Presidential Council was installed. A UN-brokered, Kenyan-led security mission arrived soon after. But a year later things are worse than ever. 'We are approaching a point of no return,' María Isabel Salvador, the UN's top official in Haiti, told its Security Council at a meeting on April 21st. Tasked with preparing for elections that in theory will be held in November, the council is now mired in allegations of corruption. The security force of around 1,000 people (less than half the number originally planned) has not been able to stem the chaos. Its funding runs out in September. The council is a 'transitional authority that controls nothing', says Claude Joseph, a former prime minister. 'It's an unsustainable catastrophe. We could lose Port-au-Prince at any time.' Port-au-Prince, the capital, now sees daily gun battles in which police and civilian vigilantes face off against a gang coalition called Viv Ansanm ('Living Together'). It has seized control of much of the city. The international airport has been all but shut down; the only way in or out is by helicopter, or by a barge that skirts the coast to bypass gang territory to the south. On May 2nd the United States designated Viv Ansanm and a sister organisation as terrorist groups, opening the door to tougher criminal penalties for those who provide them with money and weapons. The collapse of public life is accelerating. Most schools are shut. Cholera is spreading. The Marriott, one of the last functioning hotels, has closed its doors. Gangs have surrounded the offices of Digicel, Haiti's main cellular network, through which most people connect to the internet. 'If Digicel goes down, the country goes dark,' warns a security expert. The gangs don't need it. Increasingly sophisticated, they use Elon Musk's Starlink satellite system to communicate, organising themselves to the extent that they have been able to keep control over access to Haiti's ports. They also extort lorry drivers and bus operators moving along many of the country's main roads. The UN reports that in February and March more than 1,000 people were killed and 60,000 displaced, adding to the 1m, nearly 10% of the population, who have fled their homes in the past two years. Circulating videos show gang members playing football with severed heads, bragging: 'We got the dogs.' Central Haiti, once relatively peaceful, is fragmenting into fiefs. Mirebalais, a city which lies between Port-au-Prince and the border with the Dominican Republic, is now controlled by gangs. 'The country has become a criminal enterprise. It's the wild, wild West,' says a foreign official. Patience is running thin at the UN Security Council. The United States has already committed $600m to the security mission, but is unlikely to offer more. 'America cannot continue shouldering such a significant financial burden,' said Dorothy Shea, the US ambassador to the UN. Few other countries want to donate. The Transitional Presidential Council is so desperate that it is exploring deals with private military contractors. It has been talking to Osprey Global Solutions, a firm based in North Carolina. The founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, visited Haiti in April to negotiate contracts to provide attack drones and training for an anti-gang task force. The council declined to comment. The Haitian police are overwhelmed; an estimated 12,000 officers police a population that approaches 12m, barely half the UN-recommended ratio. Weak leadership, poor co-ordination with the Kenyan-led force, and calls for the ousting of the police chief point to deep institutional rot. In Canapé-Vert, one of Port-au-Prince's last gang-free pockets, a former policeman known as 'Commander Samuel' leads a vigilante group called Du Sang 9 ('New Blood' in Creole). Gangs have thinned its numbers. It is all that stands between them and the prime minister's office. Clarification (June 3rd 2025): Paragraph eight of this article has been amended to make clear that the council exploring deals is the Transitional Presidential Council. Sign up to El Boletín, our subscriber-only newsletter on Latin America, to understand the forces shaping a fascinating and complex region. Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines to 100 year archives.
Irish Examiner
17-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Mick Clifford: Blended working not to everyone's taste
I have great social skills, says I to myself in the mirror this morning. Yes I do. No you don't, says anybody I subsequently asked. You're a disaster. Why this momentary lapse into introspection? It's because I am among the legions who now work remotely. This week, we were told that 'social skills have fallen off a cliff since the start of remote working'. This came from Neil McDonnell, chief executive of the small business group, ISME. He was reacting to, in 90% agreement with according to himself, an outburst by Denis O'Brien about the concept of remote working. O'Brien told a gathering in Dublin's Mansion House last Friday that working from home was 'a load of nonsense'. He suggested that the cultural change that has swept through the workplace since covid has impacted on the national work ethic. 'We have always had a great reputation in Ireland for hard work,' the former chairman of Digicel said. 'Unfortunately, there is now a pervasive, what I call 'entitlement culture', where graduates and young people are dictating their work practices to their employers. 'This lark of people saying, 'I'll come into the office on Tuesday and Wednesday; otherwise I'm going to be working at home', is a load of nonsense. I don't employ those kinds of people, and to be honest with you, I never will.' According to The Currency website, the comments were met with 'enthusiastic applause' from the audience at the Mazar's investor awards event. Others like the Social Democrats said Mr O'Brien had a 'brass neck'. Their spokesperson Sinead Gibney said what was a 'nonsense' was that the right to work from home in this country is so weak. 'Instead of taking advice from tax-exile billionaires, the Government should look at the facts,' she said. 'Regrettably, when I asked the Taoiseach today if this government intended to further bolster the right to work from home, he dodged the question.' Remote working is just another of a growing list of topics these days on which opinion is polarised. One is either for or against it. To somebody like Denis O'Brien, the concept is anathema but then he is a massively driven businessman for whom work is a lot more than just, well, work. He would not claim to be a paragon, or possibly even understand, the notion of a work-life balance. He didn't get where he is in terms of his wealth through a 40-hour week with appropriate breaks, shift allowance and paternity leave, all of which are important to plenty of people. And good luck to him. The world needs O'Briens in order to fuel economies, but it doesn't need too many of his ilk Remote working is just another of a growing list of topics these days on which opinion is polarised. Some people have difficulty in finding a place to live and remote, or more typically, blended working can facilitate living many miles from the office. Remote working has, for many, been the silver lining of the pandemic. It has transformed working lives. The jury is actually out in a global sense as to whether or not it has impacted on productivity. Has the change in culture led to some people taking the proverbial? Most likely, yes. But some people have always taken the proverbial, whether or not chained to a station in a designated place of work. A recruitment consultant who confided in me this week said that an issue that arises these days among prospective employees is the requirement to work from home in order to walk their dog. Suffice to say the dog needs walking but maybe priorities in such a scenario should be revisited. As for an 'entitlement culture', surely that is a product of a tight labour market. The balance of power between employer and prospective employee is a direct product of economic times. Productivity and creativity There are arguments that productivity for some has increased. In the days before the pandemic, it is safe to say that most people who were in attendance at the designated place of work were not productive for the full 40 hours. That's not suggesting laziness or bad management but just the nature of things. So even if the 40 are not put down at a work station at home, it doesn't follow that productivity has been reduced. Working from home has allowed people to compress, not compromise, productivity. To dismiss the cultural shift as 'a load of nonsense' is definitely nonsense, but there are aspects to remote working that have to be having an impact. In his address, O'Brien suggested that what has occurred has led to, among other things, a loss of energy, creativity, and ideas. Another source who gave me the benefit of their wisdom in this area described it as 'lateral information flow'. Or, if you will, the informal and often casual interaction, knocking together of heads, accidental brainstorming that can and does occur in a place of work. It is impossible to measure, but over the longer term its absence becomes obvious in results. In the first instance the loss accumulated falls on the employer but the loss of creative thought affects all in one form or another. This is the cost of the trade offs inherent in remote working and whether it's a bargain all round, too expensive, or simply a fair trade, is a long way off determining More importantly, and equally opaque in the short term, is the cultural impact of the loss of socialisation at work. This could have a serious impact on some among Gen Z who are either entering the workforce or are in the early straits of a career. This generation is the first to grow up largely through their phones in a world created by their parents. That has impacted on a basic level in their collective capacity for socialisation. How many teenagers do you know who even communicate with any regularity to another voice at the end of the line? Everything is via a screen. Then along came the pandemic at a vital period during their development, whether it was in school, third level education, or the early stages of a working life. The fall-out from that is only now being fully recognised and questioned. Entering the workforce after that kind of arrest in development can be no easy thing. Having available the choice of working from home is a no brainer for many, just one more reason why it's not necessary to leave the home and interact in person. Remote working is, on the whole, a hugely positive advance. But recognising the downside, particularly for newish entrants to the workforce, is necessary. Read More Jennifer Horgan: Luxury school trips deepen inequality and strain struggling families
Hi Dubai
06-05-2025
- Business
- Hi Dubai
e& Partners with Digicel to Strengthen International Voice Services and Combat Telecom Fraud
e& has partnered with Digicel Group to enhance the quality and security of Digicel's international voice services across 24 markets in the Americas, marking a major move in the global telecom landscape. Under the strategic agreement, e& will manage inbound and outbound international traffic for Digicel, streamlining operations and improving service performance. This collaboration also focuses on implementing advanced AI-driven technologies to detect and prevent fraud, a growing concern in the telecommunications sector. The initiative will provide both companies with real-time monitoring, threat mitigation tools, and robust security protocols aimed at protecting users, operators, and the broader telecom ecosystem. With rising threats and evolving technologies, the partnership is designed to set a new standard for operational resilience and security in international voice traffic management. By aligning their expertise, Digicel and e& are not only boosting technical capabilities but also future-proofing operations amid industry shifts such as the rise of OTT platforms and VoLTE. The collaboration supports Digicel's wholesale strategy by optimising costs and reinforcing its market position. Nabil Baccouche, Group Chief Carrier and Wholesale Officer at e&, said the partnership aligns with e&'s strategic expansion, particularly as the company establishes its wholesale hub in Miami. He emphasized the importance of delivering high-quality, innovative, and secure services across the Caribbean and the Americas. Liam Donnelly, Digicel Group Chief Business Officer, noted that the alliance enhances customer experience and opens the door to broader international business opportunities. As telecom providers face increasing challenges, this partnership between e& and Digicel represents a forward-looking approach to operational excellence, fraud resilience, and long-term growth in international communications. News Source: Emirates News Agency
