A pre-placement of 5.04 million shares (45% of the issue) will be offered on January 14 and the share offer opens to the public on January 15, closing on January 18, or earlier, depending on demand. The shares are expected to start being traded on the Stock Exchange on January 30 and Maltapost, which has a market capitalization of €14 million, will be adopting a dividend policy of distributing up to 50% of yearly available profits.
Expressing his satisfaction at the initial public offering yesterday, Investments Minister Austin Gatt said Maltapost was being sold at the point when it was strongest and showed good future prospects and when, being run on commercial lines, changes had started yielding results and profit. The total privatization of Maltapost was in line with the government’s policy that it should remain “small” and leave what could be managed by the private sector in the private sector’s hands: the road to economic growth, Gatt maintained. It was in line with the belief that “a government should govern and not do business,” Gatt emphasized, adding that its privatization policy would continue. The government’s stake could have been sold to Lombard Bank Malta plc, the majority shareholder, instead of being listed on the Stock Exchange but the idea was to offer the public the opportunity to invest in their future, he said.
Maltapost’s privatization process started five years ago, amid major controversy, when 35% of it was sold to Transend. The New Zealand company had brought about several changes that initially were not digested but today have been accepted and welcomed, Gatt said. The sale had been vehemently opposed by the Labor Party, which had branded it as “scandalous”. But the minister was interpreting the MLP’s silence on the issue as consensus. Three years later, the government had approved Lombard Bank’s purchase of Transend’s shares and then sold a further 25% to the chosen strategic partner, rendering it the majority shareholder (60%). The government had already intended to completely sell out of Maltapost, one of its “traditional pillars of administration,” Gatt said, adding that Transend and Lombard Bank had proceeded to change it “from top to bottom”. The bank considered its investment in Maltapost to be a “strategic partnership, presenting considerable synergy potential and resulting in significant value added for stakeholders,” Maltapost chairman Joseph Said said yesterday. (timesofmalta.com)
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