Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1153841
3 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 11 AUGUST 2019 Hili Finance Company plc is a subsidiary of Hili Ventures Limited Hili Finance Company plc Nineteen Twenty Three, Valletta Road, Marsa, MRS 3000, Malta T 00356 2568 1200 E info@hilifinance.com www.hilifinance.com APPLICATIONS NOW AVAILABLE €80,000,000 3.80% Unsecured Bonds 2029 Sponsor Manager & Registrar Hili Finance Company p.l.c. (the "Company") is offering to the public €80 million Unsecured Bonds due 2029 at the rate of 3.80% of a nominal value of €100 per Bond at par. The Bonds are guaranteed, jointly and severally, by Hili Ventures Limited (C 57902). For more information one should refer to the Prospectus dated 18 July 2019 ("Prospectus"), which may be downloaded from the Company's website. Copies of the Prospectus are also available, together with application forms, from Authorised Financial Intermediaries listed on the Company's website during oce hours. Applications for the Bonds may be made for a minimum of €2,000. The subscription period for preferred applicants is between 24 July 2019 and 13 August 2019 (both days included). As for the general public, subscriptions open on 30 July 2019 and close on 20 August 2019, or earlier if fully subscribed. The Bonds are expected to be admitted to the Ocial List of the Malta Stock Exchange on 4 September 2019 and trading is expected to commence on 5 September 2019. The value of the investments may increase as well as decrease and past performance is no indication of future performance. Prospective investors are to refer to the Guarantee contained in Annex III of the Securities Note forming part of the Prospectus for a description of the scope, nature and term of the Guarantee. Reference should also be made to the sections entitled "Risk Factors" contained in the Registration Document and the Securities Note, forming part of the Prospectus, for a discussion of certain factors which should be considered by prospective investors in connection with the Bonds and the Guarantee provided by Hili Ventures Limited. MASSIMO COSTA THE Standards Commissioner has called on ministers and the Department of Information to not issue press statements that are unrelated to official matters or that are partisan in tone. In a report issued yesterday, Commissioner for Standards in Public Life, George Hyzler, said the custom of providing the DOI with statements which are connected with personal issues or are partisan should stop. The Commissioner's report was triggered by a complaint filed by lawyer Andrew Borg Cardona earlier this year. Borg Cardona requested that the Commissioner determine whether a press statement on Tourism Ministry Konrad Mizzi, issued by the Tourism Ministry through the Depart- ment of Information, consti- tuted appropriate use of public resources and an appropriate manner of behaviour by the minister concerned and his of- ficials. Mizzi's press statement, pub- lished on 6 February 2019, had announced that the minister was withdrawing a number of libel cases he had instituted to contest allegations of money- laundering on his part, since these allegations had already been declared baseless in court proceedings. In his report, the Commis- sioner took the view that the press statement dealt with a political issue arising from Mizzi's personal interests and was not related to his official duties. "Mizzi instituted the libel cas- es in his own name and dam- ages would have been awarded to him personally had he pur- sued the cases to a success- ful conclusion," the Commis- sioner noted in a press release yesterday. "Furthermore, the press state- ment was couched in a partisan tone. Among other things it accused members of the Op- position of spinning a 'web of deceit' and 'mud-slinging'. The Commissioner finds that such terms are not appropriate for official statements issued by the DOI." The Commissioner also found that the practice of "feeding the DOI with such statements, whether or not the statement relates to a matter that is of in- terest to the public (as opposed to 'in the public interest'), and whether or not this is a custom that is well established in the Maltese political system, is not correct and should be stopped." "The Standards in Public Life Act provides us with an op- portunity to challenge customs that are well established in the Maltese political system if such customs fall short of the stand- ards that we collectively aspire to embrace," the Commission- er highlighted. He went on to underscore that the DOI should be "jealous of its political impartiality" and calls for a policy to be drawn up on the dissemination of press statements by ministries or possibly a wider policy on the role of the DOI in the media world. Mizzi may have been misled At the same time, the Com- missioner acknowledged that the absence of such a policy may have misled Mizzi. In the report, he said that, in the circumstances of the case, the appropriate remedy was for Mizzi to direct his officials to be more sensitive to the dis- tinction between official and private or partisan matters, and not to make use of the DOI for private or partisan matters in future. The Commissioner also not- ed that Mizzi had agreed to this course of action, and therefore went on to close the case. mcosta@mediatoday.com.mt Mizzi gets slap on the wrist from Standards Commissioner Commissioner for Standards in Public Life says practice of ministers using DOI to issue personal or partisan press statements has to stop Konrad Mizzi's press statement, published on 6 February 2019, had announced that the minister was withdrawing a number of libel cases