Guarantee for Loan for Acquisition of Digicel Pacific Limited by Telstra Group Limited of Australia
Supporting Reliable and High-quality Telecommunications Networks in Pacific under Japan-United States-Australia Trilateral Partnership

• Region: Oceania
• Infrastructures
• Others
• Untied Loans
• Guarantees

1. The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC, Governor: HAYASHI Nobumitsu) signed on March 24 a guarantee agreement (total principal covered by JBIC's guarantee: USD50 million) with Export Finance Australia (EFA) to guarantee a part of EFA's financing to the Telstra group in Australia, and announced today a joint statement on this project^*1 with EFA and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).
     
2. The guarantee is provided alongside a USD50 million DFC loan guaranty. Together, the investments guarantee part of EFA's financing, which was provided to the Telstra group to support the acquisition of Digicel Pacific Limited (Digicel Pacific) by the Telstra group, Australia's leading telecommunications company. Digicel Pacific is a telecommunications operator in the Pacific.
     
3. Holding more than a 60% market share in the Pacific, Digicel Pacific is playing a central role in the region's telecommunications sector. The importance of reliable and high-quality communications networks is recognized in the joint media release^*2 that the leaders of Japan, the United States, and Australia issued at the G20 summit in November 2022. This guarantee is endorsed by this joint media release and reflects our shared commitment made there.
     
4. Digicel Pacific owns extensive telecommunications infrastructures, including in rural areas, and is intending to expand its networks. These efforts play an important role in terms of the SDGs, as they will lead to bringing financial services to households inaccessible to bank accounts or bringing educational opportunities to the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, a nation of more than 800 languages.
     
5. In November 2018, JBIC signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU)^*3with DFC's primary predecessor agency, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation of the United States (OPIC), the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), and the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (Efic, former organization of EFA), both of Australia. In October 2022, JBIC, DFC, DFAT, and EFA renewed the MOU^*4 to further strengthen the cooperation that Japan, the United States, and Australia had developed. This guarantee is a project under this trilateral partnership.
     
6. As Japan's policy-based financial institution, JBIC will continue to provide financial support for sustainable economic development and the improvement of the business environment in the Pacific by drawing on its various financial facilities and schemes for structuring projects and by performing its risk-assuming function.
     

Note

1. *1 
   See the joint statement.
2. *2 
   See the joint media release.
3. *3 
   See Press Release on November 12, 2018.
4. *4 
   See Press Release on October 17, 2022.