Dropped the call: Caribbean wireless provider Digicel postpones $1.8 billion IPO

Digicel Group, which is leading provider of mobile services in the Caribbean with 14 million subscribers, postponed its IPO on Tuesday.

Digicel was set to be the first of several billion-dollar IPOs on the docket for the fourth quarter. With a proposed deal size of $1.8 billion, it would have been the year's largest IPO so far by about +50%. The telecom has the dominant position in primary markets Haiti, Jamaica and Papua New Guinea, but must manage $6.45 billion in debt (5.4x LTM EBITDA), some of which was used to pay insiders over $1 billion in distributions during the prior two years.

The Hamilton, Bermuda-based company was founded in 2000 and booked $2.8 billion in sales for the 12 months ended June 30, 2015. It had planned to list on the NYSE under the symbol DCEL. J.P. Morgan, UBS Investment Bank, Citi, Barclays, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank were set to be the joint bookrunners on the deal.