BUSINESS TECH
Communications
Moves Closer to the Caribbean Relocates Corporate Head Offices to Miami, Florida Cable & Wireless Communication announced plans to leave the UK after 140 years as it returned to profit after offloading businesses in gambling hubs Monaco and Macau. The company, which recorded full-year pre-tax profit of $35m (£23m) last year compared to a loss of $117m in the previous year, plans to move its headquarters to Florida in the United States as part of a restructuring of the business. Tony Rice, the Chief Executive, said the company would remain British but the move would bring it closer to its core operations in Central America and the Caribbean. Revenues slid four per cent, however, to $1.9 bn on the tough economic climate in its main markets, partly caused by a continuing slump in tourism in the Caribbean. “In certain markets at least that’s not going to go away,” said Rice. He said it had been a “milestone year” for the company, which sells fixed line and mobile network services. It sold its controlling stake in Macau’s largest telecoms operator to stateowned China Telecom in January for $750m. That followed the
disposal in December of its Monaco and Islands division, which served the Falkland Islands and Isle of Man among others, to Bahraini group Batelco for $680m. Rice said the sales had given CWC the “structural coherence” it sought after demerging from Cable & Wireless Worldwide, the British operation bought by Vodafone (LSE: VOD.L - news) in June. “The group is now focused on a single region with low penetration for data services and strong growth potential where we have scale and market leadership,” he said. The group is trying to expand data services as its traditional voice telecoms revenues are declining. It also aims to strip out a further $100m in costs within two years with a new single management structure and IT systems run from new operations headquarters in Florida. “We’re fundamentally re-engineering the business as an operating telco rather than a portfolio of businesses,” said Rice. The group is looking at acquisitions in Spanish-speaking Central America and Caribbean, where GDP growth is stronger than in English-speaking islands. ¤
Compete Caribbean
Funds Region’s Only Cell Phone and Tablet Maker The company that won the ‘Prime Minister’s Award for Innovation’ at the 2013 St. Lucia Business Awards has hit a virtual jackpot: a milliondollar grant from a regional entity promoting Caribbean business competition. Regional Communications, which produces the Celestial brand of locally-manufactured cell phones, laptops and tablets, received a US $500,000.00 grant from Compete Caribbean Enterprise Innovative Challenge, a fund established to help regional companies further develop their business, as well as to assist and support firms to improve productivity, exports, employment, social/environmental issues, economic diversification and growth. Regional Communications is the only company in the Caribbean producing cell phones, laptops and tablets and is owned by St. Lucian George Benson. Benson, who received the award during the recent Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) meeting here, said his business idea emerged after he employed unskilled and unemployed single mothers to improve their livelihoods. He said that created an avenue for innovation and opened a door to transform information communications technology in St. Lucia. He noted that 90% of his employees are female, 80% of who are single mothers. ¤
BusinessFocus July /Aug
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