Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/969423
maltatoday SUNDAY 15 APRIL 2018 News KARL AZZOPARDI WITH the EU aiming to abolish the sale of fuel-powered cars by 2035, and the Maltese govern- ment's plans to go electric by 2040, investments in new petrol stations would be short-sighted, Godfrey Farrugia warned yesterday. The Democratic Party MP said that most major car manufac- turers planned to stop produc- ing fuel-powered cars within the next seven years and that a policy review on petrol stations should therefore seek to safeguard the needs and interests of both the environment and the developers. Farrugia was addressing a press conference called by the PD in re- sponse to Environment Minister Jose' Herrera's proposed review of the 2015 fuel station policy on the construction of petrol stations in Outside Development Zones (ODZ) areas. He pointed out that despite the large density of cars in Malta, the current number of fuel stations already exceeded the needs of the country by more than double and that such demand could diminish to five fuel stations by 2035. He called for a moratorium on fuel station construction in which no applications would be accepted until a proper strategy is agreed upon. "A moratorium would ensure that applications received would conform well with an environ- mentally conscious strategy," he said, while pointing out that such a moratorium had been imple- mented when a fireworks factory policy was being drawn up. Farrugia said that new fuel sta- tions should only be built within industrial estates or sites hosting small and medium enterprises and no less than 1.5km from an- other petrol station. He said no applications should be accepted for development of petrol stations between towns in order to conserve green belts. Plateaus and agricultural land also had to be protected. The cur- rent stipulated maximum area of 3,000sq.m allowed in the devel- opment of petrol stations should be reduced further. PD leader Anthony Buttigieg praised the proposed review of fuel station policy but said fur- ther measures to protect the en- vironment were called for. He said that the 2015 policy had been enacted to safeguard public health interests by moving fuel stations out of urban areas but this had not succeeded in safe- guarding the environment. PD hails ERA fuel station policy review, proposes stricter regulations MATTHEW VELLA A 10% shareholding in Bank of Val- letta held by the Italian bank Uni- credit will be sold to the Maltese investor fund Amalgamated Invest- ments SICAV. Two weeks ago, BOV announced that its second largest shareholder would be disposing of its total share- holding. The transaction is subject to regu- latory approval. Unicredit holds 52,500,439 shares in the bank, being 10.001% of the is- sued shareholding of the bank. Amalgamated Investments SICAV p.l.c. is a multi-fund investment company, consisting principally of a portfolio of Maltese equity secu- rities such as Bank of Valletta and HSBC Malta, and a portfolio of blue-chip investments that includes Google, Apple, Coca-Cola and Mc- Donalds. As of October 2016, the to- tal value of shareholder funds stood at €63.7 million. The SICAV is ultimately owned by Mercury plc, a holding company of the Testaferrata Moroni Viani group. Shareholders Paul and Peter Testaferrata Moroni Viani formerly sat on the board of directors of Bank of Valletta and HSBC Malta. The directors of Amalgamated In- vestments are for- mer APS Bank chairman E.P. Delia, former APS director Joseph C. Caru- ana, and former HSBC Malta execu- tive director Charles J. Farrugia. Unicredit did not participate in Bank of Valletta's rights issue issued in 2017, sending a strong signal that the bank was not interested in ex- tending its relationship. When BOV became the first public company to be listed on the Malta Stock Ex- change, 14.56% was held by Banco di Sicilia, which stake was later tak- en over by Capitalia in 2006, and a year later, following a merger, in the hands of Unicredit. That stake went down to 10% with BOV's recent rights issue. In recent years various foreign banks in Malta have disposed of their holdings, amongst them Volksbank, Banif – now renamed BNF – and more recently Lombard Bank's Cypriot shareholding, which the National Development and So- cial Fund has offered to acquire. The Unicredit shares derived from the 40 per cent of the nationalised Bank of Valletta in 1974 when the state investment arm Malta Devel- opment Corporation sold shares to Banco di Sicilia and the remainder to the Maltese public. Unicredit has been a bit player in BOV's overall strategy, and un- der Chief Executive Officer Jean Pierre Mustier, it focused entirely on cleaning up the lender's balance sheet: selling €17.7 billion in non- performing loans to investors while Italy grappled with the pressure of more than €300 billion in non-per- forming loans. The crisis forced the Italian government to rescue some banks with the biggest bailouts in decades. Malta investment fund to buy Unicredit shares in BOV