Digicel has called a halt to the planned initial public offering through which it had expected to raise around US$ 2 billion.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Caribbean-focused telco attributed its decision to market conditions.
"Despite significant support for the IPO from a high quality group of investors during the marketing period, current conditions, particularly in emerging markets, have impacted transaction momentum over recent days," the operator said.
"Given our growth outlook, an IPO for Digicel was optional and predicated on achieving fair value for the company," added Digicel chairman Denis O’Brien.
"Recent volatility in equity markets has seen a number of IPOs listing at a discount to their signalled price range and this was a less attractive route for us," O’Brien said.
Last month Digicel set a price range of S$13-$16 per share for the listing. At the top of that range the IPO would have brought in $2.28 billion, but the telco estimated it would raise around $1.7 billion, based on the mid-point of the price range and after expenses.
It said it would use $1.3 billion of the proceeds to pay down debt.
On Tuesday O’Brien pointed ou t that the operator has no material debt maturities until 2021 and is generating strong free cash flow.
As such, the telco plans to push on with growth plans, focusing in particular on data, business services, cable TV and broadband, the CEO said.
Irish-owned Digicel offers mobile services in 31 markets in the Caribbean and the Pacific, where it serves 13.6 million subscribers.
