Claro, Digicel deal passes deadline
Published:Friday | July 8, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Digicel Group and America Movil have passed the deadline for closing the deal to swap assets in Jamaica and Central America.
On Wednesday, Digicel spokeswoman Antonia Graham said the telecoms firm was offering "no new guidance" on an amended date.
The deal was originally to close by the end of the second quarter, which would have put the final date at June 30, but uproar in Jamaica over the potential for Digicel to monopolise the market has forced the information minister and regulators to deepen the review of the deal and potentially add riders to the licence of the acquisition target, Claro Jamaica.
Regulators in El Salvador also identified filing breaches, which Graham later said was related to translation of documents that was fixed almost immediately, slowing the process in that market.
Digicel Group is selling its El Salvador and Honduras businesses to America Movil in exchange for Claro.
The transaction is reportedly valued at US$350 million, and while Claro Jamaica has said it has hundreds of thousands of subscribers, Digicel Group chief executive officer Colm Delves has said the deal would net the company just about 40,000 new clients, representing the number it counts as dedicated Claro customers.
Jamaicans tend to subscribe to two or more networks. In a country of 2.7 million, Digicel has claimed more than two million subscribers, while LIME Jamaica, which does not comment on its customer base, is estimated to have more than 700,000.
The Claro acquisition will give Digicel access to a 3G mobile platform, which is reportedly faster than its current EDGE network.