Canadian shareholders to pull out of Malta International Airport

One of the owners of the Malta International Airport is in the process of selling off its stake. Canadian engineers SNC-Lavalin, a shareholder in the Malta Mediterranean Link Consortium (MMLC), is in discussions with third parties for the disposal of its shares in MMLC.

SNC-Lavalin own 40% shareholding of the MIA, that is owned by the MMLC.

According to a company announcement issued by MIA this morning, SNC-Lalvalin will be selling the stakes, amounting to 38.75% of the issued share capital of MMLC.

The other partners in the consortium are Vienna International Airport with 53.24%, and the Bianchi Group, with 10.63%.

In August, MaltaToday reported that the Canadian company could pull out of MIA after the company made a surprise disclosure of a possible US$45.6 million loss from a client's attempt to draw on a credit line for the Libya work that it abandoned during the uprising against dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Libyan projects at the time of Gaddafi's removal from power included an airport, a prison and a water line network known as the Great Man-Made River.

A company insider speaking on the condition of anonymity had told MaltaToday that SNC may have taken "a political decision" to distance itself from Libya.

"MIA could be an asset that SNC is ready to sacrifice after taking a political decision to move away from Libya... as for the Maltese government's share in MIA, the state is interested in seeing the revenues from the airport come in," the source said.

Earlier this year, a number of SNC Lavalin employees were accused of paying US$160 million in bribes to obtain business in Libya, including the purchase of luxury yachts for the son of the late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, according to a Royal Canadian Mounted Police search warrant.

The World Bank has also slapped SNC-Lavalin with a record-setting sanction, barring the engineering firm and 100 of its subsidiaries from bidding on any of the bank's development projects for the next decade, after SNC agreed not to dispute charges that it conspired to bribe several Bangladeshi public officials in an effort to secure a $50 million bridge contract.

The bank said it has uncovered evidence that SNC conspired to bribe public officials in Cambodia and that it had passed that information along to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who are already probing the company's activities in Libya, Algeria and Bangladesh.

New chairman for MIA

Meanwhile, MIA announced that Michael Hoeferer will be resigning from his position of chairman of the company, but shall be retaining his directorship.

Heoferer, due to a change in his functions as an executive of Vienna International Airport, said he would not be able to dedicate the time required by the chairmanship of the Company.

The board of directors appointed Nikolaus Gretzmacher as chairman of the company. Gretzmacher is a director of the Company and there is no change in the information reported about Gretzmacher under listing rules 5.20 and 5.21.

Gretzmacher was born in 1975. He graduated in Economics from the University of Vienna and joined the Business Development team in Vienna International Airport in 2003. Three years later, he was appointed Head of Strategic Planning and Shareholdings Management. In October 2011 he returned to Vienna Airport as Senior Vice President Operations.