Cable veteran Michael Willner will join the board of directors of Digicel on 1 November, the Caribbean and South Pacific focused mobile operator announced today.
Cable veteran Michael Willner will join the board of directors of Digicel on 1 November, the Caribbean and South Pacific focused mobile operator announced today.
Willner has been an investor in, and president of, software licencing start-up Penthera Partners since 2012.
A graduate of Boston University’s College of Communications, he began his cable career in 1974 at Vision Cable Communications and served as its COO from 1979 to 1985. In 1985, he co-founded and became CEO of Insight Communications, where he remained until its sale to Time Warner Cable in 2012.
He has twice served as chairman of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and, between 2000 and 20012 chaired its political action committee CablePAC. From 2007 through 2011, he also chaired the board of the Cable City and was on the executive committee of CableLabs and the boards of C-Span and the Walter Kaitz Foundation.
Commenting on his new role, Willner said: “The opportunity to help [Digicel] evolve from a leading provider of mobile communications into a total communications and entertainment provider and to deliver these services across some of the most vibrant countries on earth was too good to pass up.”
Digicel, owned by Irish billionaire Denis O’Brien, is expected to list this month in a transaction worth a reported US$1.5bn-US$2bn.
Digicel has indicated that it will use the proceeds for capital spending, acquisitions and repayments on its US$6.5bn debt pile.
According to an SEC filing, JP Morgan, UBS and Citigroup are managing the IPO, alongside joint bookrunners Barclays, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, with Davy as lead manager.
In FY 2014, the company recorded revenue of US$2.79bn, and an adjusted EBITDA of US$1.18bn.
Digicel serves 13.6 million mobile subscribers in 31 markets, which together have a population of 32 million. It claims to be the number one player in 21 markets, with a market share of over 50% in 20 markets. The company now provides cable TV & broadband services to residential customers in nine markets, and is in the process of rolling out FTTH in Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados.
