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5 NEWS 13.10.2022 In the three years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, Malta recorded a current account surplus averaging 5.5 per cent of GDP, underlined by a strong service net export balance. However, the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted the current account balance leading to a current account deficit in 2020 and 2021. During the first quarter of 2022, Malta has similarly recorded a current account deficit, although this has decreased significantly from the previous quarter by 4.1 percentage points. percentage of trade in goods VON der Heyden Group Finance plc was granted approval by the Malta Financial Services Authority for the listing of a new ten-year €35 million bond issue with an annual interest rate of 5% on the Official List of the Malta Stock Exchange. e new unsecured bonds, having a nominal value of €100 per bond issued at par, are guaranteed by the Group's parent company, Timan Investments Holdings Limited. e proceeds from this new bond issue will be used for the redemption of the previous 2017 issuance of €25 million 4.4% unsecured bonds due to mature in 2024, subject to the early redemption of the said maturing bonds to be placed for the approval of the holders thereof. e remaining proceeds will be on-lent to the guarantor, Timan Investments Holdings Ltd for the part-financing of the Andersia Silver project, and for general corporate funding. e company will be giving preference to the present bondholders of the €25 million 4.4% unsecured bonds 2024 for the €25 million dedicated for the roll-over while €10 million will be available for subscrip- tion by new investors. Any balance from the new Bonds not subscribed to by exist- ing bondholders shall be offered for sub- scription by authorised financial interme- diaries through an intermediaries' offer. Andersia Silver, the Group's flagship project, a 40,000 sqm A-class office tower having an investment value of over €105 million, has secured bank financing as well as 10% of its office tenancy in pre-leases ahead of its construction. e 116m high skyscraper will be Poznań's highest building after its An- dersia Tower (105,2 m) being developed through a joint venture company between the Von der Heyden Group and the City of Poznań. Applications will be made available to preferred applicants on the 1st November and through an intermediaries offer from the 18th November. Subscriptions will close on 2nd December, or earlier if the bond issue is over-subscribed. e mini- mum subscription amount is €2,000 and in multiples of €100 thereafter. e bonds to be issued are expected to be admitted to the Official List of the Mal- ta Stock Exchange on 16th December and trading is expected to commence on the 19th December. Von der Heyden Group Finance plc launches 10-year €35 million bond at 5% coupon ENGINEER Michelle Cortis has been elected to the Executive Board of European Federation for National Engineering Associations (FEANI) as a member from the Southern Region. Cortis was elected with an over- whelming majority of 85% of eligibl e votes at the FEANI General Assembly. Cortis is the First Maltese Inġinier to be elected to the FEANI Executive Board, on which she will serve for three years. Malta has been actively represented on FEANI through the Chamber of Engineers (CoE) since 1981 yet it has never been represented at an Execu- tive Board level. Cortis, who is Chairperson of In- ġiniera Malta and International Af- fairs Secretary on the CoE Executive Council, said it was humbling to see such a level of trust from her Europe- an colleagues. "is encouraging result was pos- sible only because of the support of both the Chamber of Engineers and Kamra tal- Periti – especially Mal- colm, Robert, Andre and Jeanette," she said. "rough this role, Malta will con- tinue to effectively contribute to the international engineering community from our country's perspective." MELITA Business is offering customers a full Microsoft 365 backup service, host- ed at its state-of-the-art Data Centre in Madliena. e service is offered through Smart Cloud, a joint venture between Melita Business and Smart Technologies, and provides the data security and restoration capability required by companies to pro- tect their data. e service is also valuable from a legal and compliance perspective, enabling cus- tomers to access historical data quickly. e importance of backups is widely recognised across all business sectors as data volumes grow exponentially. Compa- nies that use Microsoft 365 need to take responsibility of ensuring all their data is backed up securely, while remaining ac- cessible. Smart Cloud's Microsoft 365 backup service caters for all circumstances by providing both short term backups or long-term archives of all data on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business and Microsoft Teams as well as granular or point-in-time restorations. e use of the local ISO-certified secure Data Centre enables faster data recovery and favourable legal jurisdiction protec- tions and access rights. Smart Cloud is offering various Microsoft 365 back-up packages which start from €38 per month, all of which offer Outlook, Teams and OneDrive Storage. Businesses choosing this Smart Cloud service are pro- vided with a round the clock support and strict service level agreements. Malcom Briffa, Director of Business Ser- vices at Melita Limited, said, "Melita Busi- ness, in addition to investing in world class infrastructure, has also created several suc- cessful partnerships to be able to provide a full suite of connectivity, communications and data services to our customers. Smart Cloud, which combines the infrastructure and managed service experience of Smart Technologies with the security, interna- tional connectivity and up-time offered by the Melita Data Centre is a perfect exam- ple of this. More information on the Microsoft 365 Data Backup service on Smart Cloud is available at https://www.melitabusiness. com/hosting-cloud/m365-backup/ Andersia Silver, Von der Heyden Group's flagship project First Maltese engineer elected to FEANI executive board Melita Business offers Microsoft 365 backup through Smart Cloud Michelle Cortis (Photo: Chamber of Engineers)

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