Columbus Inc in deal worth US$225m to acquire Tele-Barbados

BRIDGETOWN—Columbus International Inc (Columbus) announced on Wednesday that through a wholly-owned subsidiary, it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Antilles Crossing (Barbados) IBC Inc and Antilles Crossing Holding Company (St Lucia) Ltd. The acquisitions are from Caribbean Fibre Holdings, LP.

The transaction includes the purchase of TeleBarbados Inc, Tele-St Lucia Inc and Wamco Technology Group Ltd. Tele-Barbados owns and operates a fibre rich telecommunications network in Barbados and provides advanced voice and data services to a diverse retail and corporate customer base on both a wireless and a hard-wired basis.

According to Columbus International, Tele-Barbados holds a broad range of licenses as issued under the Telecommunications Act of Barbados to provide domestic and international voice services, backhaul bandwidth capacity services, Internet exchange services, managed data network services, virtual private network services, public Internet access services, fixed wireless telecom services, domestic and international telecom services, and various wireless spectrum services.

Tele-St Lucia holds a series of licenses issued under the Telecommunications Act of St Lucia to provide similar services throughout St Lucia. Commenting on the transaction, Columbus chief executive officer, Brendan Paddick, said: “The acquisition of Tele-Barbados marks a significant milestone in Columbus’ entry into the Barbados telecom marketplace.

Columbus plans to invest heavily in Barbados over the next 24 to 36 months to offer consumers the full triple play of broadband Internet, digital landline telephone and advanced Internet protocol-based video services under the brand name Flow. “In addition, Columbus will be launching a series of corporate data, connectivity and information technology services under the brand Columbus Business Solutions.”

“With our recently announced US$225 million credit facility, Columbus is well positioned to make an immediate and significant direct investment in infrastructure in Barbados, resulting in the launch of a host of new advanced consumer and corporate services, the creation of hundreds of new high technology jobs and lower prices leading to a more competitive Barbados in the global economy,” Paddick said.