Caribbean profits tumble for Cable & Wireless

(CNS): Financial results for the parent company of LIME, Cable & Wireless have revealed a fall in profits for the communications giant in the Caribbean region. The company said the downturn in earnings stems from its Caribbean arm due to economic conditions impacting usage in the thirteen countries making up the region. C&W said earnings were likely to slide further from £142 million recorded in the year to March, which itself represented a 15 per cent fall. Lower usage and a higher number of people leaving have caused call revenues in the region to fall by 9 per cent.

CWC now expects its underlying earnings from the Caribbean in 2011/12 to be in the range of £112 million- £130 million down by a third in two years.

Tony Rice, chief executive of the London-based Cable, which also has operations in Macau, Panama and Monaco, said the Caribbean has been more difficult than expected since the demerger and it continues to face weak or declining economies in the region.
Profits overall rose by 21 per cent to £287 million on last year, but on an underlying basis the performance was flat as revenues from the Caribbean business declined by 3 per cent.

The outlook for one of the company's most important markets overshadowed a better-than-expected 1 percent rise in core earnings helped by strong trading in Macau.
"We have hadto navigate some choppy waters in the Caribbean," Chief Executive Tony Rice told Reuters on Wednesday. "We made no secret of the difficult economic and trading conditions we faced last year, which we continue to face and which we expect will continue next year."

Shares in CWC fell as much as 12 percent as the Caribbean outlook overshadowed full-year results.

CWC has been reshaping its Caribbean operations as it battles reduced tourism and increased competition. Rice said he had no plans to exit the region. "We've been there for a hundred odd years and we expect to see it through," he said.

See more on C&W results here