BusinessToday Previous Editions

5 NEWS 11.5.2023 VALLETTA Luxury Properties has of- fered €78 million for Evans Building, making it the highest bid for the public building that dominates lower Valletta. e consortium includes a Maltese hospitality company based in St Ju- lian's and a high quality foreign hospi- tality company. Last week, it was reported that Katari, another bidder, was the top bidder, but BusinessToday can now confirm that Valletta Luxury Properties had the highest bid with a €78 million offer, or €1.2 million a year for 65 years – the length of the concession period. Katari spearheaded by Pawlu Attard formerly of GAP has offered €41 mil- lion. e next highest bid of €39 million was made by Iconic Hotel Malta. Other bids were made by HV Hos- pitality (€24 million), AX Group (€23 million), and SeaBank Hotel (€21 mil- lion). e Evans Building was former- ly known as Evans Laboratories and housed the public health laboratories and several other government offices before being abandoned a few years ago. e concession is being handled by Malta Strategic Partnership Projects, a government entity responsible for public private partnership. e four-storey building was built in 1952 to serve as university laboratories and was subsequently used to house a number of government offices, includ- ing the Electoral Commission and the passport office. e site also includes the lost remains of the Chapel of Bones, which is locat- ed beneath the ground. e request for proposals was meant to gauge interest from the private sector for a 65-year concession to transform the building into tourist accommodation. Development on the Evans Build- ing site is presently regulated by the St Elmo and Environs Development Brief 2011, which allows the consid- eration of total redevelopment of this site. Nevertheless, a decision has been made to retain the external shell of the Evans building while allowing interior modifications. e concession period is set for 65 years with a minimum initial invest- ment of €13 million and multiple re- investments along the concession pe- riod. e terms also include the poten- tial restoration of the underground structures within the first part of the concession period. e annual ground rent has been fixed at €146,000. Valletta Luxury Properties presents highest bid for Evans Buildings with €78 million offer FROM PAGE 1 "e information published in terms of the applicable requirements to Listed Companies is made through the Offi- cially Appointed Mechanism, including Company Announcements and Annual Financial Reports. e MFSA monitors the adequacy of transparency of List- ed Companies in terms of the Capital Market Rules and Market Abuse legis- lation. e MFSA also carries out su- pervisory engagement with entities, which engagement is confidential." e Von der Heyden Group which has properties in Eastern Europe, a yacht charter business and a restaurant chain said it had increased its turnover, spe- cifically pushing the narrative of higher turnover but not referring to any loss in profit. e company's executive director is former finance minister Tonio Fenech. In 2017, Fenech was officially repri- manded by the MFSA as a non-exec- utive director of a pension fund that lost millions in Swedish pensioners' savings. Last year, Fenech spearheaded a sec- ond bond issue for five years for Von der Heyden Group, which some indus- try players said was intended to borrow Maltese money to spend abroad. Since the issue of the first bond in 2017, Timan Investments Holdings Ltd within the group recorded losses as of June 2022, of €3.8 million. When contacted by BusinessToday in 2022, Fenech acknowledged that the parent company had recorded a loss in the past three years, but put it down to the effects of COVID-19 on the proper- ty and hospitality industries, in which the company is heavily invested. Fenech had acknowledged that plans for Malta had not been fully realised. "e group had an agreement in place to operate a boutique hotel in Valletta but those plans fell through when all construction and heavy work in Vallet- ta was prohibited in the run-up to and during the Valletta 2018 celebrations as EU culture capital," he had said. Fenech had said that the Group now had a promise of sale agreement in place for the Cugo Gran Macina Hotel in Isla. "We have also solidified a 50% share- holding in the five Hammett's restau- rants in Malta, and are also finalising a warehousing project in the south of Malta," he had said. Former PN minister heads Von der Heyden Group

• Cover