NEWS | Wednesday, 09 January 2008

Government to shed remaining shares in Maltapost

David Darmanin
Minister for IT and Investments Austin Gatt yesterday announced an initial public offering of government’s remaining 40% shareholding in universal postal service provider Maltapost plc, which until 2013 owns a monopoly over the provision of local postal services.
Back in 2002, the government had decided to sell off 35% of Maltapost shares to New Zealand company Transend Worldwide Ltd – a move that had been met by a fair amount of controversy. Four years down the line, Lombard Bank purchased all of Transend’s shareholding in Maltapost and eventually bought an additional 25% from government, making it majority shareholder with a 60% stake. Lombard Bank Malta plc, the first Maltese company to be quoted in the stock market, is soon due to sell off 43% of its shareholding to Cypriot company Marfin Popular Bank plc. Sponsoring stockbroker Karol Farrugia, of Rizzo Farrugia & Co, explained that the share offer consists of 11,200,000 shares of a nominal value of €0.25c per share being offered at a price of €0.50c per share – releasing 40% of Maltapost’s market capitalisation at €14m. Also, the company is to adopt a dividend policy of distributing up to 50% of yearly available profits.
“This is the last step towards the privatisation of Maltapost”, Gatt said. “I am taking the current silence from the Opposition as a consensus that our views on the privatisation of Maltapost are no longer controversial. We want to focus on governmental affairs, and want to keep government small thus moving away from business. We could have easily offered our 40% share to Lombard Bank and I’m confident that they would have very much considered the option. Instead, we decided to promote the idea of letting the general public invest in lucrative enterprises. We have seen significant progress in a company that used to cost the taxpayer a lot of money.”
As outlined by Maltapost Chairman Joseph Said, over the past years the postal service company has made significant quality leaps that made it more financially viable. In spite of more than a 30% decrease in staff complement over the past nine years, Maltapost achieved a 94.5% delivery rate for 2007 for inbound mail which was delivered one day after arrival in Malta, exceeding the 92% target set by the Malta Communications Authority and the European average of 88%.
“For some reason, postal services around the world do not normally publicise efficiency figures quoted by the International Post Corporation,” he said. Soon after, he announced Malta’s 3rd placing out of 29 European countries for success rate of next day delivery. Taking the Poste Italiane model of combining business and banking, Said also revealed plans of offering what is termed as “low-cost financial services” from Maltapost branches.
“By the end of the first quarter of this year, Maltapost branches will be offering the possibility of encashing pension cheques,” Said remarked.