Digicel’s Pacific mobile networks deal  threatened by ‘discriminatory’ new tax

The €91m tax has been described by Digicel as "sudden, bizarre and unprecedented tax”

Digicel’s Irish founder, Denis O’Brien, met with the PNG prime minister, James Marape, last week to try to resolve the matter.

Digicel Group says it is considering legal options after Papua New Guinea (PNG) imposed a $100m (€91m) tax that the telecoms firm said had potential “implications” for the planned $1.57bn (€1.43bn) sale of the Pacific’s biggest mobile network to Australia’s Telstra.

Telstra Corp said last October that it would buy the Pacific operations of Digicel in a deal largely funded by the Australian government, seen by observers as a way to block China’s rising influence in the region. The operations include 2.5m mobile phone subscribers across PNG, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa and Nauru.