Stakes raised for Denis O’Brien’s Digicel

His 11th-hour decision to halt plans to raise an enormous $2bn in the US by selling shares for the first time has considerably raised the stakes for Denis O’Brien and his indebted Caribbean company Digicel.

It raises the major question whether he has missed the boat to pay down a substantial part of the telecom company’s debt and fight off competitors in the company’s home patch.

It is a decision that will not have gone unnoticed by Digicel’s major competitor, Cable & Wireless Communications, in most of the 31 markets across the Caribbean and South Pacific where Mr O’Brien’s has built his telecoms businesses over the past 15 years.