BOV’s off-market sale of MIDI shares tagged at nominal 0.01c per share

Malta’s largest bank sought to save on stockbrokers’ fees – a percentage of some 0.75% on trades – by selling its 19 million shares in MIDI plc, in an off-market transaction that nominally cost just 0.01c per share.

It means that in registering the sale of its shareholding in MIDI on the stock exchange, Bank of Valletta recorded this transaction at just 0.01c for each of the 19 million shares sold to businessman Mark Weingard: nominally, just €190,000.

The rest of the transaction, if based on the 32c per share of MIDI, was worth at least some €6 million.

An off-market transaction is settled between two parties on mutually agreed terms without involving the stock exchange, except for the nominal registration of the trade. In this case, BOV and Weingard registered the trade at just 0.01c per share, incurring minimal expense on stockbroker fees, usually charged to both transferor and transferee.

MIDI plc is the developer of Tigné Point and Manoel Island.

British entrepreneur Mark Weingard is a millionaire philanthropist who adopted Malta as his home, bringing over a three-Michelin-star chef for a 100-day gastronomic experience and laying out plans for a high-end luxury hotel on Barbara Bastions.

British businessman Mark Weingard

Weingard was also listed as the beneficiary of Carragh Portfolio, a BVI company, in the Panama Papers leak of 2016. The successful derivatives trader worked for Chemical Bank [now JPMorgan Chase] and Tokai Bank [now Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ] as an interest-rate swap trader in London and Singapore.

He is a shareholder of Malta-registered companies Elab Holding Ltd, Iniala Holding and Iniala Santa Barbara Ltd, Iniala Management and Iniala Art & Design Ltd, Iniala Developments Asia, The Valletta Project Ltd, Ena Company Ltd, Vast Holdings Ltd, Benny Holdings and Benny Limited, Daa Daa Daa Holding and Ale Properties Ltd, Dinner In The Sky Limited, and Mid Knight Holdings.