In August of last year Seamus Lynch stepped down from the position of CEO and was replaced by Raoul Fontanez as Group Chief Executive Officer.  Mr. Fontanez was formerly the CEO of Orange Dominicana (Dominican Republic) and Orange Carabe (French West Indies) where he was responsible for business strategy and expansion activities.

After six months at the helm of Digicel a number of new executives have joined the company and it is hoped that they will help in furthering the company's presence in the region.

Mr. Kenneth Mason, formerly of the Lewis Group, was appointed as Group Business Development Director.  A Jamaican, his mandate is to identify business opportunities in the Caribbean.  He will be paying particular attention to acquisition of licences and developing strategic partnerships.

Only this week Digicel announced that it had acquired Curacao Telecom and will be expanding its network as it seeks to establish its presence in the Dutch Caribbean.  There are about 120,000 mobile users in Curacao.

The company is taking a keen interest in customer care and sees it as a core aspect of its business.  At the end of last month it was ranked the number one company in Jamaica in regard to customer care.  The survey was conducted by an independent market research company for the period October to December 2004.  The research showed indicators such as overall satisfaction on the part of customers increased to 90 per cent with average wait time and call duration seeing marked decreases over the last quarter.

To beef up its customer care operations Digicel has brought in Eric Viel as Group Customer Facing Services Director.  He started his duties at the beginning of this year and is responsible for defining the quality of service for customer care as well as billing operations.  Mr. Viel brings considerable experience to this new position serving as Customer Care and Billing vice-president for Orange in the Dominican Republic.  He has spent almost 7 years working in the telecoms industry in the Caribbean.  As it spreads GSM technology throughout the region, its technological support and infrastructure will require more attention.  To that end it has brought in the talented Mr. Mario Assaad as Group Chief Technology Officer.  He began his duties in January of this year and it will be up to him to provide coherence in the technical and IT approach.  He will be the point man as Digicel acquires new licences in and seeks to put in place network structures.  He has worked in Lebanon and has also served as Technical Director for Orange in the Dominican Republic.

LOOKING TO ASSERT DOMINANCE

Digicel sees itself now as a regional player and is now actively looking to assert dominance.  In January of this year Digicel's chairman Dennis O'Brien said: "We have invested US$600 million in four years in seven countries and we will be investing in another five Caribbean countries.  Digicel is now the fastest growing telephone service company in the Caribbean.  Forty per cent of the Caribbean is not yet liberalised and we will be going after that.  We see ourselves as a Jamaican multinational company run by local managers.  Our main focus is the Caribbean region and we don't see ourselves going beyond that."

Back in 2000, Digicel invested US$47 million in acquiring a cellular licence from the Jamaican Government and so made its first foray into the region.

This week Digicel signalled its intent by announcing that it has completed a US$408 million syndicated funding agreement led by Citigroup in New York.  The funding agreement includes US$120 million in new debt capital to fund its growth and acquisition strategy.  Digicel has sought to streamline its corporate structure.  This includes restructuring debt and completing the buyout of minority equity holders, including the International Finance Corporation (IFC) through a bond offering partially tied to the Jamaican and Trinidad and Tobago capital markets.

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