Sri Lankan firm owed €560,000 by Schembri, supermarket creditors lining up

The owner of the Mosta premises housing a supermarket from the More franchise – whose former shareholder is businessman Ryan Schembri, 36 – has sued Schembri’s business Cassar & Schembri Marketing for unpaid rent and energy bills.

Joseph Vella, the owner of the former Ta’ Natu Supermarket in Mosta, sued Ryan Schembri and Etienne Cassar’s business firm, for failing to pay €32,000 in energy bills, and €187,700 in unpaid rent.

Schembri is believed to have left the island with his wife and son, having amassed a reported €40 million in debts from loan sharks.

While this sum cannot be quantified, MaltaToday has established that Schembri’s debts as registered in the law courts and other notarial records, are already over €5 million, with debtors calling on the former supermarket owner to pay up.

This newspaper is also informed that a Sri Lankan firm with a Maltese business address, has called on Schembri’s firm to honour a €560,000 loan.

According to official company records, Cint Operations Ltd – housed in the offices of accountants Horwath Malta – filed the €561,198 claim back in June 2014.

Despite the huge sum demanded, both Cint Operations and parent company Cint Holdings appear to have negligible assets: 2011 records show total asset values of less than €2,000 for both companies and negligible profits of less than €500.

While in June 2012, Schembri and his wife purchased a villa in Mellieha’s lavish Santa Marija estate for an impressive €535,000, within 16 months he would be chased for millions in debts he amassed for his expanding food business.

As recently as last June, Schembri and his firm Cassar & Schembri Marketing, together with the More Supermarkets franchise, were registered as debtors of entrepreneur Edmond Mugliett for €2 million in capital, at the highest interest rate permissible at law. The money had been loaned by various companies.

Schembri, his firm and the More chain also borrowed €1.5 million, at the highest interest rate possible, from businessman Alexander Farrugia.

After borrowing as much as €930,000 from HSBC Malta, Schembri and his firm changed banking facilities to Banif Bank. In 2011, Banif forwarded Cassar & Schembri Marketing €1 million to refinance current facilities held with HSBC Malta, and to refinance their investment and capital expenditure at the Palm City Supermarket outside Tripoli, Libya.

Banif also accorded a €627,000 overdraft to Cassar & Schembri, and another €700,000 loan for Schembri’s firm Interaa Holdings Ltd, to be utilised for the business’s working capital requirements in connection with its Libya operations.

The conflict in Libya made it impossible for Schembri to turn his Palm City supermarket operation into a viable business, despite having been a link for his food import business to the North African country.

Schembri was said to have hit it big with the importation of meat products from Brazil, which generated generous profit margins.

His ambition for a larger operation, requiring large loans to keep up with larger consignments of meat imports, hit hard times some time during 2014.

Schembri’s other business partner in the firm is Etienne Cassar, who also is a co-shareholder with Schembri in Food World Ltd.

Cassar & Schembri own interests in the firms Sant Andrija Developments, Interaa Holdings, and Ipco Ltd.

Schembri was also a director in the More Supermarkets franchise, which has operations in Fgura, Hamrun, Mosta, Paceville and Valletta.

The owners of the More Supermarkets chain are, according to company records, D.More Holdings, which was constituted in May 2014. D.More Holdings’s sole director is Darren Casha, who appears as a personal shareholder for 75% of the company; while Vice Holdings owns the other 25%.

Vice Holdings is equally owned by Casha; AZ Investments, whose beneficial owner is property entrepreneur Adrian Zammit; and Raymond Camilleri, of Villino Chapelle in St Paul’s Bay.

On its part, D.More Holdings owns 100% stakes in Erom Ltd, and Erom Trading Ltd.