First of all, a shout out to FinTelegram, which is the only website conducting investigative journalism in the local finance industry apart from this website. Both of us have covered the horrible track record of local funds, and in particular, FinTelegram has covered Calamatta Cuschieri in extensive detail while I tried to cover most of them.
Calamatta CuschieriGroup (CC Finance Group plc), one of Malta’s most popular stock brokers and financial services providers, is giving consistent negative returns on many of the funds that it manages on behalf of its clients. It deserves tight scrutiny due to its popularity in Malta buoyed by its incessant marketing campaigns. Behind the marketing and the nice offices, there is a group in crisis that is unable to provide positive returns to its clients.
Clients of CC Funds Sicav plc, managed by Calamatta Cuschieri Group in Malta, have continued bearing the burnt of Calamatta Cuschieri’s money-losing practices in 2022. The trend continued in 2023 with most of the funds registering substantial losses since inception. On the other hand, the while clients were served with negative returns, Calamatta Cuschieri have been raking in a significant amount of payments for their supposed service, of course, at the expense of their clients.
On 25th April 2023, company secretary Stephen Gauci Baluci, presented the company’s financial statements for 2022 to Malta Stock Exchange. The directors are Alexander Cuschieri, Alan Cuschieri, Carmel John Farrugia and Nicholas Calamatta. The investment manager of the fund is Calamatta Cuschieri Investment Management Limited. Clients who invested in High Income Bond Fund lost from 10% to 22% of the value of their money in 2022. The total expense ratio is 1.75%. The small gain registered in 2023 is almost all taken away by the expense ratio. The Growth Strategy Fund, instead of growth witnessed a loss of almost 14% since inception in late 2021 meaning that clients lost Eur 1,400 euro on every Eur 10,000 invested. The equity funds run by Calamatta Cuschieri are not only underperforming markets but some are almost all in the red meaning people have lost money. European and American stock markets are currently at all-time highs, commodities such as gold and silver soared, while crypto had a good run. Basically, everything is going up and it was very difficult not to make money this year unless you were stupid or ridiculously bearish.
The financial statements also reveal that clients have started pulling out their investments from Calamatta Cuschieri’s funds. Despite clients seeing their savings shrinking considerably, Calamatta Cuschieri managed to rake in some ย1.2 million in management fees and ย256,000 in administration fees. Other fees and charges consisted of almost ย500,000. Whilst clients lost millions, the directors still enjoyed their directorsย fees.
Calamatta Cuschieri promote themselves as financial experts while simultaneously running their funds and this is a blatant conflict of interest because one can’t be a financial advisor and a fund manager at the same time. They have a conflict of interest because they are financial advisors and fund owners at the same time. If you manage a fund that is losing money how can you as a financial advisor tell someone with a straight face to invest in your fund?
In the past, Calamatta Cuschieri were also accused of impropriety and clients had even sued them successfully over lost funds. Instead of turning a new page in their book, they kept tarnishing their reputation with a horrible track record and are now at risk of decimating their business as clients flee to greener pastures.
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