Memmo had invested a mere Lm0.5 million
Julian Manduca
The new owner of the Fort Chambray development, Gozitan lawyer Michael Caruana, known as il-Billy, and his family may have paid up to Lm10 million, or more, to purchase the unfinished development that has been the centre of controversy over the years.
As widely reported in the newspapers, Caruana and his brothers, who own the company Joseph Caruana and Co. will pay Lm3.7 million to the government for its 49 percent share.
The Caruana family has also agreed to buy out the previous developers, including Gozitan Paul Abela who was known to be the main investor.
MaltaToday is informed that about Lm7 million had been invested in the project and while it is not known how much the Caruanas have paid to purchase the shares of the Maltese investors, and major shareholder Roberto Memmo, all those that invested in the project were clearly gunning to make a full recovery.
As the bitter truth surrounding the project has unfolded, it is clear that those that criticised the granting of Fort Chambray to Roberto Memmo and his nebulous Monaco based company Antimen 2 SCI, were more than right to attack the government of the time.
MaltaToday is informed that Roberto Memmo, the man championed by the Nationalist government of the early nineties, invested a mere half-a-million Liri in the project; all spent in the early days.
At that time, Roberto Memmo was being investigated for his close ties with the infamous Masonic lodge P2 founder Licio Gelli and with Michele Sindona who spent several years in an US prison. Memmo, who set up an art foundation in 1972 and is a renown patron of the arts, also owning many important art works, was being investigated for money laundering activities all over the world. He is also the owner of one of the finest yachts in the world: Zaca.
Since the government sealed its deal with Memmo, Maltese investors, through Forti Ltd, invested about Lm6.5 million in an attempt to complete the project but had to continually contend with Memmo’s idiosyncrasies.
Soon after making his minimal investment, Memmo’s attitude to the project changed, and he proved to be a continual headache for the Maltese investors and a thorn in the side of the government whenever it got involved in negotiations.
Memmo reportedly was always changing his mind, and would often lead his partners to believe an agreement had been reached to push the development forward only for the Italian to change his mind at the last minute.
MaltaToday is informed that Memmo continued to be difficult to the last days, and it was mainly through the efforts of major investor Paul Abela that what proved to be extremely difficult negotiations were brought to a positive end.
Contacted by MaltaToday, Paul Abela said he was “very satisfied” with the outcome, but preferred not to comment on the negotiations.
Throughout the years the project has been steeped in controversy with accusations levelled at many of those who were linked with the project.
Among the former shareholders and directors of companies involved in the development were Charles Demicoli, Joe N Tabone. It was pointed out in the media that Tabone was a former auditor of the developing company and Demicoli a director of Malta Government Investments Ltd, partners with Memmo in the project.
But long before that the project was heavily criticised because of what were seen as the wrong choice of developer and the low price of the rental due to the Malta government.
The Labour Party in particular was vociferous in its criticism and must now feel vindicated, even if, when in government, the report it commissioned on the topic did not result in any positive turnaround.
In his report on the Fort Chambray project, Dr Edgar Mizzi referred to the conditions under which 90 tumoli of land was leased by the Nationalist Administration to private persons as being “ridiculous.” Mizzi wrote that Roberto Memmo, who had a majority shareholding in Fort Chambray Limited, the company which was supposed to have developed Fort Chambray, was given preferential treatment and many aspects of the contract were unusual. Mizzi mentioned in particular the fact that there was no public call for tenders and that the land was leased for a mere Lm 12,000 a year.
There was also internal criticism to the project and in 1990 before a planning application was submitted to the then Planning Authority, former MDC chairman Michael Soler had warned against something being built that would not attract the select few.
Soler wrote to then minister John Dalli and told him: “The development proposed by Dr Memmo lays too much emphasis on the real estate aspect of the project and could result in a densely populated complex (400 bed hotel plus 225 six-bed apartments) in a confined space, which is clearly not a deluxe five star scenario.”
Previously Dalli had been impressed by a project of Memmo’s in Monaco and was instrumental in persuading then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami that government could set up a company with Memmo. An agreement along those lines was signed on 10 July 1990.
MaltaToday asked minister Austin Gatt whether he considered the 1990 deal to have been a mistake, but the minister no sent no reply up until the time of going to press. It is, however, clear that in the new agreement the government was careful not to repeat any of the mistakes of the past. Among the new conditions insisted upon was that the buyer “had to act only through companies registered in Malta and the beneficial shareholders thereof had to be known to Government.”
julian@newsworksltd.com |
