IS DENIS O'Brien about to hand over the baton at Digicel? An article last week in the Jamaica Gleanersuggested the Irish telecoms tycoon might be about to take a less hands-on role at his Caribbean mobile empire.
According to the newspaper, O'Brien indicated that there would "come a time when he settles into a calmer schedule", at which point he will hand over management control of the Digicel family of companies to either Cork-born Leslie Buckley, Digicel's vice-chairman, or Colm Delves, its chief executive.
It left some wondering whether O'Brien was perhaps clearing the decks for a tilt at Independent News Media. Not so, it seems. Sources close to O'Brien tell us he has no plans to relinquish control of Digicel.
His remarks were made in the context of him being run over by a bus or, more likely, a chauffeur- driven limousine.
O'Brien did reveal that Digicel planned to expand its operations from 31 countries to 40 worldwide at a cost of up to $1.2 billion (€899 million). The nine countries in the pipeline include Kiribati in the Pacific, the Solomon Islands, East Timor, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Belize.
In his interview with the Gleaner, which was conducted on the tarmac at Kingston's airport in Jamaica during a refuelling stopover, O'Brien nailed speculation that he was in talks with Mexican mobile rival Carlos Slim, the world's second-richest man, on a sale of Digicel.
"Absolutely, categorically not," O'Brien said.
"There's too much fascination, too much speculation."
He also said Digicel would not float on the stock market and appeared to rule out a run at the US mobile market, which he once had firmly in his sights.
"We're not going after markets with 30 to 40 million [people]," he said, adding that the amount of money it would have to lock up in the country would be prohibitive.
