Freeport privatisation talks concluded

The government said yesterday it had concluded talks over the privatisation of the Malta Freeport and an agreement is expected to be signed on Tuesday.

The Malta Freeport Corporation will on Tuesday give CMA-CGM a licence to operate the terminal. They will also pay a lease for the terminal. The amount was not disclosed yesterday.

Sources said that CMA-CGM will be given a 30-year licence.

The government would remain the landowner and the land where the Malta Oil Tanking facilities are situated does not form part of the agreement. The administrative building of the Malta Freeport will be rented to CMA-CGM but the Malta Freeport Corporation will retain a number of offices in the building.

The privatisation process of the Freeport started in February 2000 and the privatisation unit had published the relevant documents in May. The government had however decided to postpone the privatisation by "a year" because of fluctuations that were taking place in the industry.

In 2002, the Grand Alliance, the Freeport's second biggest client, had started using Gioia Tauro instead, while the privatisation process was going on and there was a lot of fluctuation in the cost of container transport. Such fluctuations badly affected transit ports such as the Freeport, the government said.

When the privatisation process started again, a due diligence exercise was carried out and a heads of agreement was signed with CMA-CGM last October.