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3 NEWS 12.11.2020 GLOBALCAPITAL on Wednesday an- nounced its new brand identity, LifeS- tar, in the presence of Finance Minister Edward Scicluna, as the Group focuses on the rapidly changing life and health insurance market. LifeStar chairman Paolo Catalfamo said that since taking over GlobalCap- ital in 2015, the company had been transformed into an agile and innova- tive player in the insurance market. "We went through a restructuring process in the run-up to rebranding by streamlining processes, introducing ef- ficient working practices and reorganis- ing the management structure to bring about better performance and improved corporate governance. Our new name reflects the positive changes we have made and our status as a trusted and re- spected player in this segment," he said. "We also took a strategic decision to concentrate on what we do best: insur- ance. We have been a proud country rep- resentative of one of the world's leading health insurance principals, Bupa, for many years and have established a solid reputation as a leading provider of insur- ance products in Malta." Finance Minister Edward Scicluna welcomed the company's ambition, will and motivation to restructure and re- brand during these difficult times. "GlobalCapital's rebranding into Life- Star is a good sign and is more than meets the eye – this is not only good for the Group, but good for the industry and good for the country," he said. After unveiling the new company name and logo, Catalfamo explained that GlobalCapital Life Insurance Limit- ed was now LifeStar Insurance Limited, GlobalCapital Health Insurance Agency Limited was now LifeStar Health Limit- ed, and GlobalCapital plc was now Life- Star Holding plc. Catalfamo said the company was priv- ileged to have 34,000 policyholders who depend on it as well as 2,000 sharehold- ers and bondholders. "I would like to thank my colleagues for being part of this journey. We are very excited about the future and our new name embodies our desire for our clients to live their brightest life," he said. GlobalCapital, now LifeStar, to focus on insurance market MIA eyeing 2024 to revert to pre-COVID levels Finance minister Edward Scicluna (left) with LifeStar chairman Paolo Catalfamo MIA CEO Alan Borg FROM PAGE 1 The hotel is projected to cover around 5,700sq.m of floorspace and include around 90 rooms of at least four-star rating. SkyParks 2 will be a mixed-purpose building offering office and commer- cial space and is set to include con- ceptual elements geared at achieving energy efficiency and rendering the building eligible for BREEAM assess- ment and subsequent certification. On Wednesday, MIA announced a Q1-Q3 loss in revenue of over €52 million when compared to the same period in 2019. Revenue dropped by 67.7%, from €77,275,444 between January and September 2019 to €24,286,434 for the same period this year. And the company does not expect to return to 2019 figures before 2024 at the earliest, Borg told BusinessToday. "Our projections our aligned with those of the International Air Trans- port Association and the IAC and reflects the projected post-COVID recovery forecasts for the industry globally," he said. The company's performance con- tinues to be severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic's effects on both its aviation and non-aviation activi- ties. The aviation industry has now en- tered the winter period, which is ex- pected to be the most challenging in living memory globally. In October, MIA welcomed 110,346 passengers, bringing year-to- date traffic up to 1,661,700 passenger movements. This translates into a drop of 73.8% when compared to the same period in 2019. The company said it is confident that its financial resilience amassed over the past decade together with the right team of employees put it in a good position to continue facing COVID-related challenges and even- tually emerge from this crisis. MIA's cost-cutting and liquidity preservation programme, which was implemented by the company in April 2020, has enabled it to register a sig- nificant decrease in both its staff costs and operating costs. The lowering of staff costs by 24.1% for the first three quarters of 2020 re- sulted from a reduction in manage- ment and employee wages from April until July 2020, together with contri- butions from the government COVID-19 wage scheme. MIA also registered a decrease of 38.4% in oper- ating costs, which resulted from several measures taken by the compa- ny, including the revision of its main- tenance programme to focus solely on essential works. Borg said that besides SkyParks 2, the expansion of the car park had been completed and work was continuing on the cargo vil- lage development. "The uncertain cir- cumstances we are facing with COVID-19 means that we will be constantly monitoring the sit- uation and tweaking and updating our plans as necessary," he said. "It is to be expected that new meas- ures and plans be introduced as the company fights its way back to pre-COVID operational levels."

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