Digicel files for bankruptcy in Bermuda

May 19, 2020 News

Regional telecommunications giant, Digicel has filed for bankruptcy in Bermuda, but says its day-to-day operations will not be affected by the move.Digicel said it announced a proposed scheme of arrangement in the Bermudian Courts in connection with Digicel Group One Limited, which is purely an intermediate financing holding company. The move, which follows a group-wide salary reduction, is being seen as part of Digicel’s attempt to restructure US$1.6 billion of its estimated US$7 billion debt, reports from the Jamaica Observer said yesterday.

The company is a direct competitor in the local mobile market with US-owned GTT. It has signaled intentions to also land its own sub-sea fibre optic cable in Guyana to increase its data capacity.

The company said that, when complete, the refinancing activities “will strengthen our balance sheet by reducing our debt, extending our maturities and reducing our ongoing financing costs”.

“It’s important to point out that this will have no impact on our day to day operations, our staff, our suppliers, our customers or any aspect of our ongoing activities – it is business as usual,” Digicel added.

See full statement from Digicel Jamaica below:
At the start of April, we announced refinancing activities which, when complete, will strengthen our balance sheet by reducing our debt, extending our maturities and reducing our ongoing financing costs.

Following overwhelming support from our debt holders for these proposals, we are now progressing with the required administrative processes. As such, we announced details of a proposed Scheme of Arrangement in the Bermudian Courts in connection with Digicel Group One Limited, which is purely an intermediate financing holding company.

This Scheme has the support of over 97 per cent of its bondholders and also involves the appointment of a light touch joint provisional liquidators to oversee the implementation of the Scheme.

It’s important to point out that this will have no impact on our day to day operations, our staff, our suppliers, our customers or any aspect of our ongoing activities – it is business as usual.
We will provide further updates on this as we progress.