Bermuda Digital Communications, the operator of Cellular One, produced a 22 percent higher return for shareholders during the second quarter of this year, according to results reported this week by the company's largest investor, Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN) of the US Virgin Islands.

Usually it is difficult to determine the profitability of privately-held companies like Bermuda Digital because, unlike publicly-traded companies, they are not required to report results or disclose many other financial details. ATN, however, is traded on the American Stock Exchange.

In its quarterly earnings statement, ATN said it earned $498,000 during the second quarter from its 45.3 percent stake in Bermuda Digital. In last year's first quarter, the investment yielded a $408,000 profit.

For the first half of the year, the company earned $848,000, compared with $587,000 the year before.

According to Bermuda Digital's shareholder register, ATN owns 1.36 million of the company's three million shares. Although most companies who do business with Bermuda residents are restricted to 40 percent ownership by foreigners, a finance ministry spokesman said that BDC was exempt from that rule because of the amount of capital required to set up a telecommunications company (Cable & Wireless and TeleBermuda International are also exempt).

Extrapolating from ATN's figures, Bermuda Digital paid shareholders a total of $1.1 million in dividends for first quarter results and $1.87 million for the first half.

The company paid $900,662 in dividends after the first quarter of last year and $1.30 million for the first half.

The next largest shareholder of Bermuda Digital is Kurt Eve, its chief executive officer who founded the company in 1994. He owns one million shares.

According to ATN's press release, as of December 31 last year Cellular One had 12,230 subscribers, representing about half of Bermuda's mobile telephone market. The operator competes with three other companies: BTC Mobility, the wireless unit of Key Tech, and Telecom.

Bermuda Digital represents one of a few telecommunications investments held by ATN. The company owns 80 percent of Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company, the monopoly provider of local, long-distance and international services.

The company also owns Choice Communications, the USVI's largest internet service provider which also provides wireless TV services, and Atlantic Tele-Center, a call centre in Guyana.

ATN reported $2.2 million in earnings for the three months ended June 30, 20 percent more than figures for the first quarter of this year, although the most recent quarter was almost a third less profitable compared with the same period of last year.