Alfred Mifsud’s shareholders association issues memorandum on privatisation

The Malta Shareholders Association is in favour of privatisation as long as this is conducted in a fair and transparent way ensuring that the State obtains fair value for the assets being privatised.

The MSA is made up of a number of private Maltese shareholders, including Super One chairman Alfred Mifsud who is also a council member.

In a memorandum sent to the Privatisation Unit at the Ministry of Finance and the European confederation of private shareholders based in Brussels, the MSA said it favoured privatisation through wide share ownership.

In cases where privatisation to technical partners is considered more suitable, the MSA insisted that this should not be to the exclusion of popular share ownership.

Furthermore, the MSA stressed the importance of having a well-regulated competitive environment before monopolistic public sector entities are privatised. The MSA said that the regulators should be autonomous from government and should operate in accordance with recognised international standards.

In areas where it is undesirable for the public sector to relinquish control over organisations supplying monopoly services, the MSA suggested partial privatisation.

The MSA said that serious consideration should be given to provide small shareholders with favourable conditions in any float.

Malta’s privatisation process is progressing in earnest with government entities such as the Freeport, the Malta Lotteries, Bank of Valletta and Malta International Airport at the forefront of being privatised in the next wave.