Digicel sells El Salvador arm to double down on the Caribbean
What's the deal? DigicelDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has agreed to sell its El Salvador operation to General International Telecom El Salvador SA de CV (GITES)Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the telecoms group announced Monday. The price was not disclosed, and the transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval.
What's the endgame? Digicel is tying the exit to a renewed focus on the Caribbean. It plans to keep investing in subsea connectivity, fibre expansion, and network capacity across the region.
Why now? "This transaction is another step in that strategy, allowing us to sharpen our focus on the Caribbean and concentrate our resources and investment behind markets where we have strong positions," group chief executive officer Marcelo Cataldo said.
By the numbers: The sale follows a push to ease pressure on Digicel's balance sheet. In April, the company repriced an approximately US$648-million term loan due 2032, cutting the interest rate by 0.75 percentage points, after a US$100-million voluntary debt prepayment. Last year it completed a refinancing including an upsized US$1.99-billion senior secured notes offering due 2032.
The bigger picture: The move continues a long contraction of Digicel's once-wider international footprint. In 2022, it sold its Pacific operations to TelstraDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, exiting six markets, a business with about 2.5 million subscribers and US$431 million in revenue for the year ended March 2021. Digicel still operates across 25 markets in the Caribbean and Latin America, serving close to nine million customers.
What could go wrong? The sale is subject to regulatory authorisation, and the calculus differs from GITES's last Salvadoran deal. GITES acquired 99.3% of Telefónica Móviles El SalvadorDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → for US$139 million in January 2022, taking over the MovistarDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → operation.
That deal cleared without competition-authority approval because GITES had no active operations locally at the time. This time, GITES already operates in El Salvador, so the acquisition could further consolidate the market if approved.
The signal: Digicel is trading breadth for depth, shedding peripheral markets to concentrate capital where it holds strong positions. For El Salvador, the deal points to a more concentrated telecoms sector.
Read more: jamaicaobserver.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
