Denis O'Brien, founder of Digicel. - File

Denis O'Brien's Digicel Group has gone back to the International Finance Corporation with a request for at least two new loans of up to US$145 million combined.

But while the IFC had signalled that its decision would be made on separate dates in June, Digicel had not, up to press time, said whether it got the go ahead.

Digicel is hunting US$50 million to US$75 million of senior debt from the World Bank subsidiary, as part financing for the build-out of its GSM network in new market, Honduras.

The roll-out in that market will cost the company US$400 million, according to information filed with the IFC.

The funding agency was to have made a decision on that loan on June 2, and would have considered a US$70 million loan for Digicel Pacific's operations on June 30.

The latter project is valued at US$280 million.

Digicel Group has, since its inception, financed the build-out of its markets with substantial levels of debt.

At September 2007, the company was carrying US$1.4 billion of debt.

business@gleanerjm.com