No injunction, no cry for Denis O’Brien’s Digicel

No try once again for Denis O'Brien's Jamaican outfit Digicel in its efforts to prevent the loss of its sponsorship of the Fijian rugby team to arch rival Vodafone.

The mobile operator, a long-time sponsor of the Flying Fijians, has tried repeatedly over several weeks to secure a four-month injunction against the island nation’s cash- strapped rugby board to stop it from executing a new FIJ$40 million (€15 million) deal with Vodafone. Digicel alleges it should have first dibs at a new sponsorship, providing it matches the best offer on the table.

The Irish-owned company’s latest court bid to temporarily prevent the deal was thrown out just before St Patrick’s Day.

Separately, it appears that Digicel may have found a buyer for the old Claro headquarters in New Kingston in Jamaica, which it acquired when it bought its rival Claro's Jamaican assets from Carlos Slim.

The Mexican sold Claro's interests in Jamaica to Digicel as part of a three-country deal that was eventually kiboshed by regulators in El Salvador.

The building is supposedly worth about $10 million. Local reports say a real estate investment trust linked to Caribbean group Proven Investments is now in talks to take the building.