One of the directors of Shoreline Mall, a real-estate project in Smart City, Kalkara, currently led by Kevin Deguara and his associates, has told The Maltese Herald that he can not confirm whether bondholders of the 4% secured bonds maturing in August are to be paid. The bonds are currently trading at 97% of their original value. The tranche totals up to €14 million.
Robert Ancilleri said that they can never reply to such a question by phone and any announcement will be made publicly through the Malta Stock Exchange.
In normal circumstances, a director would have been proud to confidently reply to such a question by saying that liquidity is fine and everyone will be paid back. However, this is not a normal situation and the Shoreline directors seem to be concealing the deteriorating financial status of their project. Last year, the company was also hit by a garnishee order from a Turkish contractor. According to their last financial report, the company made a loss of up to €1.68 million.
Diane Izzo of Dizz Group was also involved in the Shoreline project as a commercial tenant but, currently also faces her own company’s financial and liquidity challenges. Kevin Deguara was previously a director at Dizz Group.
According to their book records, Shoreline Mall are claiming to own up to €66 million in property assets. On the other hand, the company is declaring it has up to €40 million in outstanding bonds and up to €16 million in loans to its own related companies. Last year, they also claimed that they will be generating even more revenue by selling more of their assets.
Smart City was originally built by the PN administration as an innovation and IT hub. It soon turned into a speculative real-estate project and under Joseph Muscat’s Labour administration, the project fell under the hands of his and Keith Schembri’s associates and friends. The Labour government now intends to build a road from Żabbar to Smart City.
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