Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1278887
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 16 AUGUST 2020 NEWS MATTHEW VELLA THE Melite retail group has given notice of its forthcoming bondholders meeting to win ap- proval for a restructuring plan that includes a re- duction of its bond interest rate, after the COVID-19 pan- demic's retail shut- down in Italy led to a rescission of its shop leases. The Maltese re- tail group – owned mainly by the Alf. Mizzi Group and Lidsdale Limited – holds some 26 leases in the north of Italy for retail stores of the globally known Accessorize and Calvin Klein brands. The high street fashion fran- chise suffered a massive business disruption in its main Italian markets due to the pandemic's retail shutdown. Since lifting of the forced closure of retail stores across Italy, 18 out of 26 stores were reopened. Melite plans to preserve the majority of its property rights. "The plan is designed specifically to salvage those stores, around 17 out of 26, which, based on advice from commercial real es- tate specialists, are expected to be more likely to be sub-leased – mainly as not located in the harder-hit shopping centres, but in city-centre locations – and to attract the higher margin be- tween the pre-COVID-19 value of the property rights and the an- nual rent payable to landlords," Melite said in a company state- ment this week. Melite has so far maintained regular payment of rent to land- lords despite the retail downturn, and is in discussions with poten- tial new tenants. "Management has sub-leased one store (Via Luini, Como), and has received enquiries with respect to its re- maining stores. Negotiations re- main ongoing… management is hopeful of completing a reassur- ing number of such deals in Q3 and Q4 2020." Melite's directors said the deci- sion to reopen stores was more practicable since the likelihood of finding new tenants was great- er if the stores are operational and stocked, rather than vacant and less accessible. The harsh effects of the COV- ID-19 pandemic have hit Italy hard. Melite said that indications are that retail sales have so far contracted by 25% in the case of best-perform- ing retailers, and by as much as 85% in others. "Melite Prop- erties' tenants, all of which op- erate in the re- tail sector, have likewise been se- verely negatively affected, result- ing in such tenants being unable to maintain rental payment obli- gations at the rates prevailing [at the start of] 2020." Melite said the situation is not expected to improve and remains uncertain right up into 2021 due to extremely limited tourism, office employees working from home, and a fear of infection. "As a result of this and the con- tinued and possibly worsening effects of the COVID-19 pan- demic, the company is not in a position to assess, with a signif- icant degree of certainty, when, if at all, the performance of its business may return to pre-pan- demic levels," Melite said. The company has secured €449,000 from the Malta Devel- opment Bank's Covid Guarantee Scheme to meet its interest pay- ments for its €9.25 million bonds. While shareholders will in- ject €1.1 million into the com- pany, Melite has yet to achieve bond-holders' approval to re- duce the bond interest rate from 4.85% to 3.5% as from November 2021. Melite stores reopen but COVID-19's impact on sales starts to bite Melite said that indications are that retail sales have so far contracted by 25% in the case of best-performing retailers, and by as much as 85% in others MATTHEW AGIUS POLICE believe a criminal gang based in Af- rica is behind almost every recent fake immi- gration document being intercepted in Malta. Sources in the police immigration section told MaltaToday that the illicit trade in pass- ports and identity papers has spiked since Malta re-opened its borders to travel after the COVID-19 lock-down was eased. The majority of these documents are inter- cepted during sporadic intra-Schengen checks, in particular on travellers to Italy or Germany. "[The direction of travel] is always Schengen to Schengen and never to Africa." Recently the black market is also selling gen- uine documents belonging to third parties, according to law enforcement sources. This is backed up by an increasing number of arraign- ments on related charges. And when documents can't be used, those wanting to use Malta as a springboard into the EU are still finding other ways of evading the authorities. A recent trend is the resurgence of stow-aways in, on, or under trailers heading to Sicily. The news comes after a string of immigra- tion-related arrests in recent weeks. On Fri- day, two Sudanese nationals, Adam Moham- med, 18, and Eaiis Bosh Nalimaboba, 23, were arraigned in court, accused of using genuine documents belonging to third parties. They had been apprehended at the airport as they were trying to catch a Ryanair flight to Naples. One of the accused had admitted to the po- lice that they had bought the documents for between €500 and €700 from the documents' original owner. The police are working on tracing this individual, who lives in Malta, the court was told. In another case, earlier this week, Moham- med Muzammil, a 35-year old Ghanaian na- tional living at Msida, pleaded not guilty to forgery or knowingly possessing three false Portuguese passports, attempting to use them at the Malta International Airport, as well as relapsing. Malta's courts generally impose custodial sentences of around 6 months on those who are found guilty of knowingly using false doc- uments to travel to and from the country. Whilst the law enforcement aspect is becom- ing better at catching passport cheats, the law is not proving to be an effective deterrent. Police say headway is being made in finding the masterminds behind the false documents. Efforts to trace the sources of the false docu- ments are making steady progress, said a mem- ber of the immigration section, with those ar- rested and charged with possession and use of the forged documentation pointing to several sources. "Some people are recently claiming to have bought their documents online, but the ma- jority still meet someone in person," said one police officer. "Descriptions differ – he could be Tunisian or from Gambia… they never in- dicated any Maltese involvement." Police say they believe that an organised criminal network is behind the forgeries. "The gang is definitely based in Africa. They are from North or possibly West Africa," said the officer, adding that he was hopeful for a break- through in rolling up this network soon. Police hope for breakthrough into passport fraud ring