Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/922844
8 News maltatoday SUNDAY 7 JANUARY 2018 SUNGLASSES: POLAR - CEBE DAYSOFT UV: ONE DAY DISPOSABLE CONTACT LENSES G'MANGIA FGURA ZEBBUG MQABBA B'KARA QORMI (PINTO OPTICIANS) 2122 6020/3 2122 8370 2167 3332 2146 5768 2748 7582 2149 0213 2148 8950 NAXXAR B'BUGIA ZEBBUG RABAT LUQA ATTARD SAN GWANN 2143 1152 2142 1976 2167 3332 2145 0845 2189 5248 2141 8315 2138 3947 EARLIER in the week, the Mal- tese financial regulator regis- tered its 83,925th company. The Maltese register of companies has expanded massively over the past four years, roughly in- creasing by some 24,400 compa- nies since Labour was elected in March 2013. A parliamentary question this week revealed the scale of for- eign ownership in the Maltese company register, with 31,096 firms having one or more share- holders who are not Maltese nationals. This does not mean such companies are not present on Maltese soil and carrying out their business here, but it illus- trates the type of foreign players in business here. Italy came in first position as the EU member state closest to Malta, while the United King- dom, with its historical colonial links, was the second country with the most nationals owning Maltese companies. Germany – a main critic of the Maltese tax imputation – came in third for company ownership and the British Virgin Islands came in fourth, the latter a sign of the tax haven's importance to Maltese financial services. Libya, with whom Malta has also had important trade links, was the top fifth country with nationals owning companies here. A substantial part of the exodus from the Libyan civil war has also used company for- mation in Malta to secure long- stay residence permits, but Lib- yan businesses also use Malta as a base to carry out business in the rest of Europe. Perhaps it would be more in- teresting to gauge which nation- als from countries identified in the University of Amsterdam's study on offshore financial cen- tres (OFC) have the greatest company ownership in Malta. The computation analysis of the global ownership chain had identified Malta, and another 23 countries, as 'sink OFCs' for their role in enabling tax avoid- ance, while countries like the UK were dubbed 'conduit OF- Cs' for channelling the money flows. In the case of the five conduit OFCs – the Netherlands, UK, Switzerland, Singapore, and Ire- land – all countries retain high company ownership in Malta. The UK is first, followed by the Netherlands (873), Switzerland (667), Ireland (434), and Singa- pore nationals who own just 67 firms in Malta. When it comes to major tax havens, the BVI tops the list, fol- lowed by Cyprus with 894 com- panies, Liberia (765), Gibral- tar (561), the Marshall Islands (450), Luxembourg (443), and Panama (393). Over 31,000 companies in Malta have foreign shareholders THE fine wine of music formats, vinyl records are currently enjoy- ing a resurgence in popularity that's outstripping digital music growth, proving the adage that everything old is new again as the venerable audio format comes full circle from its previous fall from favour. Once relegated to dusty base- ments and audiophile geeks, vinyl is making a comeback and its pop- ularity has been steadily climbing for the past five years, riding a part-organic, part commercially- cultivated wave of nostalgia. Domestic record shops report increasing sales of LP records, sin- gles and vinyl players and this is a trend that appears to be repeating itself across much of the Western world. But after super high-quality au- dio from CDs and ultimate port- ability through digital formats, what is the driving force behind the analogue vinyl resurgence? Before going any further, it's important to understand how re- cords work. The phonograph con- cept is nearly two hundred years old and is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an etched, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually begins near the periphery of the disc and ends near the centre. A record player reads the record by drag- ging a needle across the surface, translating the crests and troughs into sound. There are various sizes and rotational speeds but the con- cept remains the same. It is an imperfect form of sound reproduction and the output is of- ten punctuated by crackles, pops and hiss but as any vinyl aficiona- do will tell you, these very qualities are part of its appeal. Like opening a bottle of wine or rolling a cigarette, "part of the pleasure of vinyl lies in the ritual of unpacking the disk, placing it on the turntable and dropping the needle," explains Anthony D'Amato, co-owner and curator of probably the oldest record store in the world – D'Amato Records, in Valletta. D'Amato believes part of the appeal of vinyl is it's low-tech nature. "First of all it's the ritual of lis- tening to a whole album, not click- ing to your favourite tracks. Plus sound connoisseurs say the quality is better than CDs or mp3." That it's a hard-wearing format Vinyl's comeback is still going strong at Malta's oldest record store, the D'Amato Records outlet in Valletta. MATTHEW AGIUS finds out what the lure of the analog is all about…