Dubai Holding streamlines business with sale of SmartCity Malta to subsidiary MPC

SmartCity Malta, the luxury residence and commercial office project at Xghajra, is to be sold to Malta Properties Company.

SmartCity was originally promulgated by Tecom, the Dubai company that acquired the state telecoms firm Maltacom, later rebranded as GO plc.

Since then, GO has spun-off its telephone exchanges into a publicly listed property company called Malta Properties Company.

GO was at one point owned by Emirates International Telecommunications (EIT), a business unit of Dubai Holding, which disposed of its 60% shareholding to Tunisie Telecom. EIT however retained a 60% stake in MPC.

Now MPC has announced it has entered into discussions with the owner of SmartCity Malta – SmartCity Dubai, which is a subsidiary of Dubai Holding – for the acquisition of its majority holding in SmartCity Malta.

The move confirms previous rumours of waning interest in Malta’s Smart City, once billed as a futuristic “internet city” which has since then turned into a project for development speculation.

“MPC is in the initial stage of evaluating this potential opportunity through appropriate due diligence and will adhere to all applicable legal requirements throughout the process. Any eventual agreement that may be reached between the company and Dubai Holding would be subject to general meeting approval, various terms and conditions, satisfactory due diligence and regulatory approvals,” MPC said.

SmartCity Malta is also owned by the Maltese government through a 9% stake, while the rest is owned by SmartCity Dubai.