business

Barry J Whyte: O’Brien’s next call on Digicel must ring the changes

The tycoon has pulled off some incredible deals to keep the telecoms giant he built up from nothing afloat, but with the debt situation largely resolved, his next task is to make the company grow again

Digicel Group founder and chairman Denis O’Brien: the company’s bondholders have agreed to write down its debts substantially but his shareholding is reduced to 10 per cent. Picture: Getty

Eight years ago, Denis O’Brien’s Digicel was on a high. It had annual income of close to $3 billion a year, and more than $1 billion in earnings.

Having built it up from nothing in 2000, O’Brien was in 2015 flirting with a stock market flotation that would have allowed him to sell shares in the business and cash in.

But, as he would tell US business news channel CNBC at the time, the roadshow ...