Government, Air Malta to sell Middlesea shares

The government and Air Malta are seeking to dispose of their shareholding in Middlesea Insurance, the company said yesterday.

The government has a 15.78 per cent shareholding and Air Malta another 7.33 per cent.

The company said that Corporacion Mapfre SA, which already holds a 5.49 per cent shareholding, has indicated it is in principle interested in increasing its shareholding. No negotiations on the terms and conditions, including the price, have taken place yet.

In terms of the Middlesea memorandum and articles, individual shareholding is capped at a maximum of 21 per cent, the exception being Bank of Valletta, which holds 25 per cent.

Madrid-based Corporacion Mapfre is a subsidiary of Systema Mapfre, the leading insurance and reinsurance company in Spain, and one of the leaders in this same sector in more than 10 Latin American countries.

Middlesea and Mapfre have worked closely together in the past. In September 2000 Middlesea purchased 51 per cent of Sicily-based Mapfre Progress SpA from Corporacion Mapfre SA. The latter retained the remaining 49 per cent. The company was renamed Progress Assicurazioni SpA. (Progress). The acquisition had been described by Middlesea as a platform to create further opportunities for the introduction of other group financial products in the Italian market.