Bonnici Bros consortium wins €600 million Magħtab waste-to-energy contract

French consortium Paprec and Maltese firm Bonnici Bros have been awarded a lucrative €600 million contract to build and run a waste-to-energy plant in Magħtab. 

Paprec Energies International-BBL Malta was selected to build and operate the plant for 20 years, with the procurement process entering its final stage.

WasteServ said the process yielded three “high-quality compliant bids”, all by consortia of  international repute in the waste-to-energy field: Hitachi Zosen Inova AG – Terna SA, FCC Medioambiente Internacional SLU and Paprec.

Paprec Energies submitted the lowest bid, with Hitachi Zosen submitting the highest. FCC Medioambiente;s bid came in the middle, at €616 million.

Paprec had initially submitted a bid of €617 million while Hitachi Zosen originally offered to build the waste-to-energy plant for €984 million.

Paprec International’s bid involves the French waste management company of the same name, working in collaboration with local construction giants Bonnici Bros. The waste-to-energy facility will be processing 192,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste per year, which will be converted into green energy.

By the time work starts on-site, WasteServ also expects to have two other major tenders on the market, one for an EU-funded organic processing plant and the other for a skip management facility.

All are in line with the ECOHIVE strategy and are intended to allow Malta to move towards a fully circular economy in the waste management field.

Eleven companies had submitted offers to Wasteserv when its plans to build a massive waste management facility were opened to tender in 2022. Wasteserv then whittled that list down to five and started negotiations with shortlisted bidders.

Two of five companies that had originally submitted an offer - Magħtab Ġdid Enerġija Nadifa and SACRY Industrial Operacion y Mantienimento SL - did not submit final bids. Those two companies had submitted the lowest-value bids at the time of shortlisting.