|
Kurt Sansone
The controversy over the land in Qawra belonging to Maltacom that came to the fore on Thursday during the parliamentary debate on a motion of censure of Minister Austin Gatt, presented by the Opposition, has spilled out of the House with the now totally privatized telecoms company issuing a company announcement on the Malta Stock Exchange.
On Friday, Maltacom confirmed that the Qawra land still belongs to the company and the entity was not involved in any share purchase agreement between the Government and Tecom’s locally registered buying company.
In parliament Gatt had said that in the promise of sale for the transfer of government’s 60% shareholding to Tecom it was agreed that government would give full title of land used as exchanges to Maltacom but in return would take an undeveloped land at Qawra owned by the company.
Gatt said he discovered that when the Labour government sold the first tranche of 40 per cent shareholding to private individuals, no proper due diligence was made on the title of ownership of land used by Maltacom. Gatt implied that the sites were still under expropriation procedures and the owners were not paid compensation. The thrust of Gatt’s statement was that his government was now trying to remedy the wrongs of a Labour government.
This heavy statement was not well received by the investment community since it implies that private shareholders were possibly misled.
The company announcement on Friday put shareholders’ minds at rest since it confirmed that the land at Qawra does belong to the company but raised worries over the way it could be disposed of because of a deal between Tecom and government.
The company announcement said that whatever is eventually decided concerning the disposal of this property will be done following deliberations by the company’s board of directors acting in the best interests of the company as a whole.
It remains unknown whether the outgoing board of directors was aware of the promise of sale of the company’s property but it goes to show that government as the majority shareholder did not give two hoots about the private investors and acted as if the whole company assets were its to pledge as it deemed fit.
ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt
|
