Haiti surpasses Jamaica as Digicel’s top earner

Pan-Caribbean telecoms group Digicel ended 2012 with 10.2 million subscribers, up 8.6% from last year, with Haiti knocking Jamaica from the top-spot as the company’s greatest earner. Irish news portal Independent writes that earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) in the six months to end-September 2012 were USD49.5 million, on the back of revenues of USD277.5 million for the Haitian unit, whilst its Jamaican operations booked revenues of USD243.0 million and EBIT of USD45.2 million during the same period. Total group revenues in the three months to 31 December 2012 were USD549.9 million, up 4.0% year-on-year, though EBIT dropped 8.3% to USD136.5 million. Digicel is set to refinance a block of debt later this month, through an upcoming USD1 billion bond offer: the lion’s share of the funds will be used to repurchase notes that are due to be repaid in 2014.