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maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 29 AUGUST 2018 3 NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 When contacted by Mal- taToday last evening, Gauci would not give further de- tails, saying only that full de- tails would be made public in due course. Starbucks prefers licensing partnerships to franchising, since these allow it to main- tain more control over op- erations. The licensee will still be responsible for the day to day running of the outlets, but the parent company will have an input in store de- sign, menu, promotions and training. Starbucks does not issue li- censing partnerships lightly, and in fact these do not come cheaply. Industry insiders estimate that a Starbucks licensing agreement for just one outlet can cost anything up to 315,000 US dollars. An applicant would need to already have attractive loca- tions where Starbucks would want to open as well as the resources to open those Starbucks outlets. In his report in the annual report presented yesterday, Gauci says that the licensing agreement with Starbucks was part of db Group's quest to sustain to a steady expan- sion of its core business as- sets and revenue streams. "It is my pleasure to an- nounce the signing of a li- censing agreement with Starbucks to open and oper- ate Starbucks stores in Malta and Gozo," he wrote. "This world-renowned brand will add a new and exciting di- mension to the Group's in- ternational portfolio. Reach- ing this major milestone fills us with great pride and determination to deliver on the local stage the unique experience which Starbucks has been offering the world since 1971." This is not the first major brand that db Group has been successful in partner- ing with. Over the course of the last four decades, the Group has forged strategic relationships with various global players including Hard Rock Café In- ternational, the Accor Hotel Group and RIU Hotels & Re- sorts. The City Centre project will feature the Mediterra- nean's third Hard Rock Hotel as well as a number of world- famous bars, restaurants and retail brands. Starbucks licence a major milestone for db Group KURT SANSONE VALLETTA FC could be two weeks away from finalising a major deal with Saudi investors, the football club's president Victor Sciriha said. The Malta champions are look- ing at an agreement that will see the club turn into a company, in which the foreign investors will be shareholders. Sciriha would not divulge de- tails of the talks currently under- way with the, as yet, unnamed investors but insisted "we are talking of a big sum". "Nothing is finalised yet but our lawyers are currently drawing up the agreement and I expect that in two weeks' time we would be able to conclude matters with the investors," Sciriha said. He said the investors were "se- rious" about investing in Malta and had a "background in foot- ball". Valletta club members last week gave Sciriha and his com- mittee the go-ahead to enter the last leg of the deal but any final agreement will have to be ap- proved by them. "We explained to the members what the agreement will entail and what safeguards we will be taking to protect the club and asked them for permission to continue the talks… members will have the final say on any agreement we reach," Sciriha said. The Malta Football Asso- ciation will also be involved in carry- ing out a due diligence of the people who will eventually be nominated direc- tors, he added. Sciriha explained that Val- letta FC will become a company run by a foundation. It has long been the ambition of Valletta supporters to have their own football ground and see their team advance further in European club competitions. The Saudi investment is being viewed as a possible gateway to further success but some remain wary of lofty promises that can turn sour. Sciriha told MaltaToday the club's lawyers were drawing up a contract that safeguarded the club from any debts the Saudi investors may incur. "There are other matters we want to include in the contract but discussions are confiden- tial," Sciriha said, adding the Saudi investors had already met him three times in Malta. Valletta won the double last season but the start to the new campaign has been lacklustre. The champions lost their open- ing games against Sliema and Hibernians. Valletta FC close to 'big sum' deal with Saudi investors FC could be two weeks away from finalising a major deal with Saudi investors, the champions are look- ing at an agreement will have the final say on any agreement we reach," Sciriha Football Asso- ciation will also be involved in carry- ing out a due nominated direc- tors, he added. YANNICK PACE TENSIONS between Malta's two waste management service providers – Green- Pak and Green MT – continued to esca- late yesterday with the former threatening to sue the latter for defamation. In a statement issued yesterday morning Green MT accused GreenPak of benefit- ting from a breach of state aid rules. It said authorities were allowing councils served by GreenPak to pay waste collectors themselves, saving GreenPak thousands of Euro in the process. In fact, Green MT, which is owned by the Malta Chamber for Small Enterprises (GRTU), said that between July 2013 and November 2017, a number of local coun- cils, in agreement with GreenPak, had paid up to €500,000 for the collection of recyclable waste and glass collections from their localities. "These payments were made directly to the waste collectors by local councils in- stead of GreenPak, thus saving it hundreds of thousands of Euro that were instead paid out of public funds," Green MT said. Green MT said that the Mosta, St Ju- lian's and Qormi local councils had all paid contractors for services rendered. It said that between December 2015 and July 2016, for example, the Mosta council had paid Northern Cleaners Group the sum of €62,068. Under the current system, the business community is obliged to finance the col- lection of waste by choosing either Green MT or GreenPak to recover waste from local councils. Payments by the business community to the service providers are based on the amount of packaging they put on the market, following the producer pays principle. Reacting to the Green MT's statement, GreenPak denied that it had benefitted from a violation of state aid rules. "The state aid rules that Green MT is accusing GreenPak of breaching were actually performance-related contracts GreenPak had secured with St Julian's, Qormi and Mosta, which had sought to sever relations with Green MT," Green- Pak said. "The opposite actually took place since GreenPak paid the following sums: Mosta local council €112,000; the St Julian's local council €27,000, and the Qormi council €90,000." GreenPak said that the councils were remunerated under the terms of a per- formance-related contract based on the number of green bags collected in each locality. It added that this "legal practice ceased in 2017 following the publication of a legal notice". The war of words between the two ser- vice providers erupted following media reports that Green MT had informed a majority of the local councils it services in Gozo that it would start requesting payment for door-to-door collection of recyclable waste. Green MT has said that it would only operate in localities where it was sustainable for it to do so. However the company said on Tuesday that it had only requested payment for additional services, such as the "supply of grey and green bags", and had not done so for the collection of recyclable waste from local councils. It said that these services were "arbitrar- ily imposed" by the authorities through the 2017 legal notice, adding that the le- gal notice effectively bypassed public pro- curement regulations. 'Green MT disregarding the law' GreenPak said that Green MT had taken a decision to start charging local councils for door-to-door collection after it was blocked from suspending its service in localities that it said were not financially sustainable. "The authority said Green MT was not entitled to take such action simply on the premise that this practice was not finan- cially sustainable," GreenPak said. "Green MT's reaction was to disregard the law stating that its members should pay for the free service provided to the local coun- cils and it informed several local councils in Gozo that it would be charging them as from today." GreenPak claimed that it was actu- ally Green MT that had benefitted from breaches of state aid rules when it received funds through an environment fund "es- tablished in breach of public procurement regulations" between 2010 and 2011. GreenPak threatens Green MT with legal action