Friday 25th September 2026
Digicel is moving to concentrate its operations and investment more heavily on the Caribbean after agreeing to sell its El Salvador business, as part of a restructuring focused on markets where it sees stronger long-term growth prospects.
The company has signed a definitive agreement to sell Digicel El Salvador to General International Telecom El Salvador SA de CV (GITES).
The transaction, for which no purchase price was disclosed, is expected to close during the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
The deal will further reduce Digicel’s footprint outside the Caribbean and the Guianas. El Salvador is its only remaining market outside the Caribbean basin, meaning that once the transaction is completed, the company’s operations will be concentrated on the Caribbean, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.
“Over the past year, we have been executing a clear strategy to build a stronger Digicel and position the company for long-term growth,” said Group Chief Executive Officer Marcelo Cataldo.
“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 and see significant opportunities for growth,” he added.
Digicel plans to direct additional resources towards subsea connectivity, fibre expansion, network capacity, technology and customer experience across the region.
“We are incredibly optimistic about Digicel’s future in the Caribbean,” Cataldo said, adding that the company is “investing in our networks, technology, products and customer experience, and we intend to continue building on the progress we have made to deliver greater value for our customers and communities across the region.”
The decision also forms part of Digicel’s effort to improve its balance sheet following a major debt restructuring and refinancing programme.
In April, the company repriced an approximately US$648mn term loan due in 2032, lowering the interest rate by 0.75 percentage points. That followed a US$100mn voluntary debt repayment. Digicel also completed a refinancing that included an upsized US$1.99bn senior secured notes offering due in 2032.
Fitch Ratings said the El Salvador sale would not affect Digicel’s credit rating, noting that the market contributes less than 5% of consolidated revenue and that the transaction is not expected to materially reduce the company’s approximately US$2.67bn debt burden as of June 2026.
Fitch recently upgraded Digicel to B+ with a stable outlook, citing improving financial performance and continued deleveraging. The ratings agency expects adjusted gross leverage to decline to 3.7 times earnings in fiscal 2027 from 3.9 times in fiscal 2026, while net leverage is projected to improve to about 3.1 times from 3.4 times.
Digicel reported approximately US$1.8bn in revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of US$710mn for the financial year ended March 2026. Fitch expects adjusted EBITDA to rise to between US$730mn and US$740mn in fiscal 2027, supported by modest growth in business-to-business and fixed operations.
The El Salvador transaction continues a longer-term contraction in Digicel’s international footprint. In 2022, the group sold its Pacific operations to Telstra, exiting Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu and Nauru. Those operations had generated US$431mn in revenue and US$233mn in EBITDA in the year ended March 2021.
GITES already operates in El Salvador through the former Telefónica Movistar business, acquired in 2022. Its proposed acquisition of Digicel will therefore require regulatory review and could lead to further consolidation of the Salvadoran telecommunications market.
Earlier in September, Digicel appointed former Telefónica executive Salvador “Salva” Hierrezuelo as group chief business officer, bringing more than 20 years of experience across Latin America.
Digicel currently operates across 25 markets and serves about 9mn customers through mobile, broadband and business services. With the El Salvador sale, the company is signalling that its next phase of growth will be centred firmly on the Caribbean, where it intends to deepen investment.
Source: Caribbean Insight – Volume 48, Issue 17