A bankrupt US Virgin Islands telecommunications company will sell its two French Caribbean cable television companies in an effort to repay creditors, an Associated Press report said.
The Associated Press report said Innovative Communications, the largest telecom company in the territory of 110,000 people, plans to sell Martinique TV Cable and Guadeloupe-based World Satellite Group for $70 million, said Jeffrey Prosser, the companies' owner.
Prosser disclosed the deal during testimony before creditors in his bankruptcy case in federal court, the report said.
The Associated Press report said Prosser and two of his companies, Innovative Communications and Emerging Communications, filed for bankruptcy on July 31, after defaulting on loans to creditors, including Herndon, Virginia-based Rural Telephone Finance Cooperative, or RTFC.
The buyer of the French Caribbean cable companies was a privately held Martinique-based company, Prosser said, but declined to give its name, the report added.
The deal will be final by February 25 and will close by March 25. The sale requires approval from French regulatory agencies and RTFC, Prosser said.
The two companies collectively serve nearly 50,000 customers in the French Caribbean islands, according to Innovative's Web site.