Owen Bonnici: 'MIDI would have obviously fought for Manoel Island in court'

Updated 8.45pm

MIDI would most certainly have sued the government had negotiations on its Manoel Island concession dragged on and led to it defaulting on a €50 million bond, Lands Minister Owen Bonnici said on Wednesday. 

Bonnici said he had no doubt that MIDI, a publicly listed company that held a 99-year concession for Manoel Island and land in Tigné, would have battled the government with all its legal might before it ever agreed to return the concession empty-handed.

"It's obvious that MIDI would have gone to court," he said, when challenged about the company's ability to fight the government if it was forced to default on its bond repayment. 

The minister was being grilled on Il-KAŻIN x Times of Malta about the government's deal to buy back Manoel Island from MIDI, in a €43 million deal approved by MIDI shareholders this week. 

The debate at the Grand Master’s Palace in Valletta began at 7pm and was hosted by Jon Mallia.

In the course of the discussion, Bonnici said both the Nationalist and Labour parties had been wrong in backing the original concession deal in MIDI's favour back in 2000.

"It wouldn't even cross my mind to give a private company that sort of contract nowadays," he said. 

He also defended the government's hardline position in negotiations with MIDI to take back the concession.

"In such negotiations, you need to use boxing gloves," he said. Had the case gone to court without a deal it would have dragged on for years and "audience members would be elderly before we got Manoel Island back," he argued.

Among those who spoke during the event was a MIDI shareholder. He said he and others had approved the deal "under protest", because the company was caught in a bind. 

MIDI has a €50 million bond that will mature this summer and the company's CEO has previously told Times of Malta the company "had no option" but to agree with the government offer.

Voters swayed

Bonnici appeared on Il-KAŻIN x Times of Malta with the statement: 'The government took back Manoel Island and got a good deal for the country'. [Il-gvern gab lura l’ Manoel Island u kiseb deal tajjeb ghal pajjizna.]

Viewers of the debate were initially sceptical of the minister's statement, with just 27 per cent voting in agreement with it, to 73 per cent against. 

But by the end of the debate, Bonnici appeared to have swayed a good portion of the audience, with 66 per cent voting in favour of his statement by the time the final vote was cast. 

Il-KAŻIN x Times of Malta is a live monthly debate centred on Malta’s most urgent national issues. Viewers are encouraged to be part of the debate through voting in real time, directly influencing the direction of the debate.

Jon Mallia and Mark Laurence Zammit alternate as hosts.