Dec. 19, 2007 — The NASDAQ stock market has upgraded Atlantic Tele-Network, owner of Choice Communications in the Virgin Islands, to its highest, blue-chip tier: NASDAQ Global Select.
"It's a milestone for this little company started from scratch here 20 years ago," Neil Prior, CEO of Atlantic Tele-Network said to the Source Tuesday. "Investors are always interested in the stability and size of a company and to the extent you can show you are an established and recognized company they can count on, you can increase investor interest and comfort."
Atlantic Tele-Network is a telecommunications company with corporate offices in Salem, Mass. and St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Its principal subsidiaries include: Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company, Limited, which is the national telephone service provider for all local, long-distance and international service, as well as the largest wireless service provider in the Cooperative Republic of Guyana; Commnet Wireless, LLC, which provides voice and data wireless roaming services for U.S. and international carriers in rural areas throughout the United States; Sovernet, Inc., which provides voice and data services over wire lines to businesses and homes in New England.
The company also owns 43 percent of Bermuda Digital Communications Ltd., which, under the Cellular One name, is the largest provider of wireless voice and data services in Bermuda and Choice Communications, which provides wireless television and wireless broadband services, as well as dial-up internet services in the U.S. Virgin Islands
The company was founded in 1987 by Prior and Vitelco owner Jeffrey Prosser in 1987. Prior and Atlantic Tele-Network split off from Prosser and Vitelco in 1996.
"You could say we were born 20 years ago and reborn 10 years ago," Prior said. "We are the only publicly traded company in the Virgin Islands I know of."
NASDAQ is the largest U.S. electronic stock market. With approximately 3,200 companies, it lists more companies and, on average, trades more shares per day than any other U.S. stock market.
To be listed as NASDAQ Global Select, companies must meet a number of income, revenue and capitalization benchmarks. A company must have a market capitalization of over $500 million, pre-tax earnings averaging over $11 million over the past three years and revenues of more than $90 million in the previous fiscal year, among other requirements.
Atlantic Tele-Network is currently trading at about $33 a share. Choice Communications has over 10,000 customers in the Virgin Islands, Prior said.
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