Retail giant PG Group plans €25 million share issue

PG Group, owners of the successful PAVI and PAMA supermarkets, is to be listed on the stock exchange as it is seeking to dispose of 25% of the company, which is valued at over €100 million. 

The group will be seeking to sell some 25 million shares through stockbrokers, to be offered to the public for €1 per share. It hopes to sell the shares immediately, anticipating the planned bond issues to be offered by hotel operators DB Group and Eden Leisure in the coming weeks. 

An analyst told MaltaToday that if the initial public offering (IPO) proves successful it would once again show that the public has greater trust in the private sector than in government investments.  

“If the IPO is taken up by the public it will show that the people trust the private sector more than it trusts the government, especially after the latest issue of government bonds was not taken up,” the analyst said. 

This is the first major IPO since MIDI listed the Tigne Point shopping mall in 2013. However, PG Group had previously offered bond issues for their flagship retail outlet Zara in 2002 and more recently in 2007 for the Qormi supermarket PAVI.  

Zara, PAVI and the PAMA shopping village in Mosta, cash generators by their very nature, are at the heart of the company’s wider operations. PAVI handles 35,000 customers a week while the newer PAMA gets 50,000 customers a week.

Among others, the company’s majority shareholder, Paul Gauci, has investments in Banif Bank Malta, the five-star Westin Dragonara Resort, and Pablo Properties. 

In recent months, the PG Group appointed former Bank of Valletta chief Charles Borg as chief executive officer, former PricewaterhouseCoopers partner John Zarb as non-executive chairman and tax lawyer Ramona Piscopo as director. The company said the appointments were aimed at strengthening the corporate governance of the board by creating the correct balance between the executive and non-executive directorships.

The company has a number of projects in the pipeline, including expanding the Zara outlet in Sliema by some 900 square metres, making it one of the largest in Europe.

PG Group and Paul Gauci do not own, and have no relationship with, Big Bon Group or Polaris Ltd any longer. Furthermore, it is also understood that PG Group and Paul Gauci have no plans to be involved, in any way, with the ITS project in St Julian's.