Digicel has completed the sale of its subsidiary Digicel Pacific Limited to a subsidiary of the Australian telecommunications company Telstra Corporation Limited for $1.85 billion.
Digicel Pacific operates in six markets in the South Pacific including Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, Tonga and Nauru and has about 2.5 million mobile phone subscribers.
The company said there will be no change to the Digicel brand in the six markets and the current management team will remain with and continue to lead the business.
Digicel also said today that Papua New Guinea had agreed to enter into a binding international arbitration process to resolve the disputed almost $100m exit tax and to waive a further $14.2m sought in respect of non-payment of the tax to date.
It said that as part of this process $99.4m has been placed in escrow on closing pending the outcome of the arbitration which will take place in Singapore.
Telstra said last October it would buy the Pacific operations of Jamaica-headquartered Digicel in a deal largely funded by the Australian government and seen by observers as a way to block China's rising influence in the region.
"Having established our Pacific operations as a business start-up in 2005, we depart with enormous pride in a team that has made affordable best-in-class communications available to more than 10 million people across six of the most exciting economies in the region," said Denis O'Brien, Digicel founder and chairman.
"I am deeply grateful to all our colleagues who contributed to this success and in particular, to our 1,700 staff in the Pacific who I know will continue to represent the Digicel brand with pride under new owners Telstra. We wish them every continued success for the future," he added.
