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09.05.19 2 NEWS JOHN Bonello has been appointed as the new chairman of HSBC Bank Malta plc, succeeding Sonny Portelli who announced his decision to step down after 12 years of service, during the bank's Annual General Meeting in April. Portelli will be retiring as chairman and director of the bank upon regu- latory approval of the new chairman. Bonello was appointed as Non-Exec- utive Director of HSBC Malta in July 2013 and is presently chairman of the bank's Audit Committee and member of the bank's Risk Committee. He is a chartered accountant and certified public accountant and was formerly the chairman and senior partner of PwC in Malta, retiring from this post in December 2009. Andrew Beane, Executive Direc- tor and CEO of HSBC Malta, said: "I would like to pay tribute to our chair- man Sonny Portelli after 12 years of service. Sonny has chaired our bank with distinction through a period of unprecedented change in the financial services industry. He leaves with our thanks and admiration, and we wish him and his family well for the future. "I am delighted to congratulate John Bonello on his appointment, subject to regulatory approval, as the next chairman of HSBC Malta. John has been a Non-Executive Director of HSBC Malta for nearly six years and already knows our business very well. e high regard with which John is held locally and across the HSBC Group makes him ideally placed to lead HSBC Malta's Board in the next phase of our strategy." Bonello said he was honoured that the majority shareholders have placed their trust in him. "As we enter the next phase, our Board will continue to support our executive and management teams as they build a stronger and safer cus- tomer-focused bank in the interests of our depositors, our customers, our shareholders, our people, our brand and the jurisdiction as a whole," he said. John Bonello appointed new HSBC Malta chairman John Bonello (left) with outgoing HSBC Malta chairman Sonny Portelli FROM PAGE 1 "January started slow and the retailers were hoping for things to improve, but instead sales continued to go down significantly, April being the worst month to date," Mamo said. "Overall they report that sales are down significantly compared to last year." She said that whilst this sit- uation was not a picture of all economic sectors in Malta, retail was one of the major sectors in the country's eco- nomic activity. "This situation is also in line with similar trends reported by other industries including tourist sectors and also the rental market," she said. Asked about the matter, Paul Fenech, president of Vallet- ta's Republic Street Business Community, confirmed that there has been a slowdown in retail trade. "There has been a slow- down, and of course we al- ways expect to see improve- ments over the previous year." In terms of what could be behind this, Fenech suggest- ed that the uncertainty cre- ated in the British tourist market – still one of the major sources of tourism for Malta – due to Brex- it, could be affecting UK citizens' confidence and in turn having a negative im- pact on the number of tour- ists visiting the island and how much they spent. Regarding the role of Mal- tese buyers in the drop in trade volumes, Fenech said online shopping was likely playing a role. "But tourism should make up for the detrimental ef- fect of online shopping," he said, "So this could be something which should be looked into further when trying to understand what is behind the retail trade slowdown." Eurostat figures show retail trade volume up over 2018 The sentiment amongst re- tailers does not appear to reflect figures issued by Eu- rostat on Monday, however. While the figures show rel- atively small drops in retail trade in February and March this year, according to Eu- rostat, retail trade volume is up compared to last year. The figures indicate that Malta's volume of retail trade dropped by 0.5% in March 2019 compared to February. In February, retail trade decreased by 0.1% com- pared to January this year. The first month of 2019, however, saw an increase in retail trade of 0.9% over De- cember 2018. Moreover, retail trade vol- ume were up by 4.6%, 4.5% and 1.3% in in January, Feb- ruary and March respective- ly this year compared to the same months in 2018. Asked about this discrepan- cy between figures and trad- ers' sentiments, Mamo said that the statistics did not accurately portray the situ- ation on the ground. She added that retailers' views reflected a year on year assessment of trade volumes. Property market settling down When it comes to the prop- erty market – which in the past years has been charac- terised by a sharp increase in prices – the "craze" within the sector is starting to settle down, the boss of the devel- opers' lobby said. Asked by BusinessToday about the current situa- tion in the property arena, Malta Developers' Asso- ciation president Sandro Chetcuti said that the sec- tor was starting to calm down, but that this was an "extremely healthy" situ- ation for developers with the necessary expertise and knowledge of trends. "The prices couldn't con- tinue to rise much higher," he said. "Recently, the proper- ty craze in the market seems to be easing somewhat." "While previously you could sell an apartment very quick- ly – if it went on the market today, you'd have practically already sold it yesterday, so to speak – now it might take a bit longer, since prospective buyers are taking their time to look into what is available and to review the large choice of properties on the market," he said. In terms of construction, Chetcuti said that several new developers had entered the market that weren't famil- iar with the sector and whose level of professional skills were lacking. Such newcomers did not al- ways have the experience to understand the market trends and to take stock of how the sector was now cooling down, he said. When it came to MDA mem- bers, however, these have the required experience to un- derstand the market, and are therefore not experiencing any issues, Chetcuti said. In an interview with Busi- nessToday last month, real estate broker Janice Azzopar- di, founder of Sensara Malta, echoed the same feelings as Chetcuti, saying that, since the start of 2019, property marked prices appear to have started to stabilise. "The years 2015 to 2018 saw prices rise practically every month. Developers would call me from one month to the other saying that a particular property had risen in cost by €10,000 or €20,000," Azzopar- di said. "As from the start of 2019, I feel that prices have 'calmed down', so to speak, although they still remain high," she added. Property industry 'cooling down' Paul Fenech Abigail Mamo Sandro Chetcuti

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