Shareholders seek meeting with PM as €50m MIDI bond repayment looms
Company paying €2 million in yearly interest payments since bonds were issued in 2016
A shareholder lobby group wants to meet the prime minister over concerns about the financial implications of continued delays to MIDI’s Manoel Island project.
Members of the Malta Association of Minority Shareholders and Retail Investors confirmed to Times of Malta that they are pushing for the meeting with Robert Abela as questions about the Manoel Islands project once again hit the headlines.
MIDI, the consortium behind the project, disclosed in its latest financial filings that the expected returns from developing Manoel Island will not be realised in the short term, as a €50 million bond repayment is due to investors next year.
The company has been paying €2 million in yearly interest payments on the bonds since they were issued in 2016.
MIDI said in its financial statements that it maintains adequate liquidity and financial resources to fulfil its obligations, including the 2026 bond repayment.
It put the delays in the Manoel Island project down to the discovery of archaeological finds and the prolonged process for approval of the full development permit.
The consortium was awarded a 99-year emphyteutical lease for Manoel Island and Tigné Point in June 2000. The developers plan on constructing over 300 luxury apartments, commercial facilities, green open spaces and recreational facilities.
Former justice minister and backbench MP Edward Zammit Lewis. File photoTaking to social media on Friday, former justice minister and backbench MP Edward Zammit Lewis appeared to question whether private companies should be allowed to issue bonds on the strength of government concessions.
Zammit Lewis said private developers granted government concessions must be more tightly controlled to prevent abuse.
Pressure on the government over the project has mounted in recent weeks as activists petition for the concession contract to be scrapped and the island turned into a public park.
Activists argue that the contract states that the project must be completed by March 2026. If developers fail to complete the project by this date, activists are saying that the government can drop the concession.
The original deadline was March 2023 but it was automatically extended.
Abela has pushed back at the petition, claiming the government would have to pay MIDI “hundreds of millions” if the contract is torn up.
Opposition Leader Bernard Grech dubbed the activists’ efforts as a “beautiful dream” but stressed that all obligations under the concession contract must be honoured.