PN retains clubs held as collateral as debts are settled - Grech
PN media has stopped making losses
A number of Nationalist Party clubs that had been put in a trust fund as collateral have been retained by the party after the associated debt was settled, outgoing party leader Bernard Grech said on Sunday.
“These clubs were at risk of being taken over if the party did not pay off its debt, but they are now free of the trust fund,” Grech said during an interview with Net TV on Sunday.
In 2017, Times of Malta reported that the PN had set up a financial structure called the Patria Trust to give the party some breathing space from rising interest rates on its multimillion-euro debt.
Former PN foreign affairs minister and former European commissioner Joe Borg was the sole trustee of Patria.
As part of the arrangement, several clubs were placed as collateral and would have been taken over if the PN failed to repay its debt.
Among the party clubs covered by the trust were those in Cospicua, Qormi (Anici), St Paul’s Bay, Birżebbuġa, Fleur-de-Lys, and Żejtun.
Grech that the debt tied to the trust has been paid off, meaning the clubs would remain under the PN’s ownership. He said the party has been working on resolving the issue over the past four years. All that remained was the signing of a contract to officially close the trust, he added.
Grech also announced that the PN’s media arm, NET, is no longer operating at a loss.
“Projections show that by the end of the year, instead of making a loss, NET media will be making a profit,” he said.
He clarified that while it won’t be a large profit, even a minor one was better than continuing to accumulate debt.
Despite these financial challenges, Grech said the PN has not halted any investments. He noted that photovoltaic panels have been installed at the PN headquarters and at some band clubs, helping to reduce electricity bills.