No Maltese investors are involved in the foreign group that has taken over the running of three hospitals in Malta, Ram Tumuluri, the director of the local operation said yesterday.

Doubts had been raised about the ownership structure of Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH), whose shareholdings lead back to a company registered in the secretive jurisdiction of the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

The Gozo, St Luke’s and Karin Grech hospitals have been handed over to VGH on a 30-year government concession.

Replying to questions by this paper, Mr Tumuluri said the ultimate beneficial owner of the BVI company was Mark Pawley, the CEO of the Singapore-based Oxley Group.

Mr Tumuluri said he was willing to provide the necessary documentation to back this up.

Oxley Group is a private equity and real estate investment firm.

Mr Tumuluri said strict non-disclosure rules prevented him from saying whether there were any Maltese investors in funds run by Oxley.

Asked to explain the need for such a complicated ownership structure, Mr Tumuluri said the “complex structures” had been in place long before VGH was set up.

Mr Tumuluri said that the British Virgin Islands were used so as to have a common tax location for Oxley’s investor groups from all over the world.

Despite the three layers of shareholdings between VGH and the mother company, there was only one ultimate beneficial owner, Mr Tumuluri said.

Questioned about his involvement in a bankruptcy case in Canada several years ago, Mr Tumuluri argued that there had been a winding down of the company in question, not a bankruptcy.

“There was no bankruptcy. There was the asset company that moved to a majority shareholder that has taken responsibility to clear the debts from a management company that got wound down,” Mr Tumuluri said.

Asked if he was linked to the company that got wound down, Mr Tumuluri said there were plenty of companies in the world that got wound down, just as there were plenty that got built up.

Pressed on his experience in the medical field, Mr Tumuluri said his focus was on the financing and business promotion side, not on the day-to-day running of the three hospitals.

The VGH director said a medical board made up of 12 members would be charged with the running of the hospitals.

The board includes former PN MP Albert Fenech, who resigned from Parliament to take up the post.

On Monday, blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia published a side letter agreement with Vitals signed by Minister Without Portfolio Konrad Mizzi in May, a month after he was stripped of his health portfolio after the Panama Papers scandal.

Asked why this agreement was signed by Dr Mizzi and not Health Minister Chris Fearne, a Health Ministry spokeswoman said the €200 million healthcare investment was being executed jointly between the Health Ministry and Projects Malta.

Projects Malta coordinates public-private partnerships such as the one entered into with the hospital operators.

Despite Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s April reshuffle, Projects Malta still falls under Konrad Mizzi’s ministerial control.