Former Villa Rosa operators purchase €1.2 million Valletta town house

Welsh investment company C.H. Bailey plc - formerly owners of the Villa Rosa in St Julian's and Paceville's Dolphin House - have acquired a €1.2 million townhouse on St Barbara's Bastions, in Valletta as part of the company's new investments.

Charlie Bailey, the executive chairman of the group, said the Valletta investment, which came with another $800,000 purchase of a 24-acre beachfront property in Dar Es Salaam's Kimbiji Bay, Tanzania, were "good investments that will give the company the opportunity to develop and expand its operations in two countries we know well and which continues to offer development opportunities, even in these difficult times."

C.H. Bailey said the purchase of both properties was settled from the group's own cash resources.

The Cardiff-based investment company sold both Villa Rosa and Dolphin House to Vic Bon Ltd, a Maltese company.

Dolphin House, situated in Paceville, was bought for €2.6 million while Villa Rosa, in St George's Bay, was sold for €32 million. In 2009, the former holiday complex Villa Rosa had contributed just over €600,000 in revenue to the total Bailey Group revenue. Dolphin House had been used as classrooms for English language students staying at Villa Rosa before being converted into a fully-fledged English-language school for the EC company.