Investigative specialists have been called to review the position of Progress AssicurazioniSpA, an Italian subsidiary of Malta based Middle Sea Insurance, after preliminary unaudited data for the fourth quarter of 2009, revealed further losses to the previously announced €29 million.
The losses are now estimated to exceed €35 million, and a company announcement placed by Middlesea’s company secretary on the MFSA website yesterday explained that “whereas the preliminary unaudited data relating to Middlesea Insurance and Middlesea Valletta Life indicate financial performance ahead of that anticipated at the time of the preparation of the Rights Issue prospectus, the fourth quarter performance of Progress is likely to cause the overall Middlesea Group consolidated loss for the year to exceed that forecast in the said prospectus.”
While Middlesea Insurance announced a Rights Issue on November 20, 2009 in a bid to raise the cash and cover the losses at Progress AssicurazioniSpA, this was fully subscribed by December.
Its three largest shareholders - Bank of Valletta, Mapfre Internacional and Munich Re, with a total holding of 62.5 per cent, each took up their proportionate entitlement.
BoV and Mapfre subscribed for a further 12.5 million excess shares each.
Additionally, 1,149 shareholders took up their proportionate entitlement and a further 346 shareholders subscribed to excess shares for a total of 1.7 million shares.
The shareholding structure of Middlesea now sees BoV and Mapre holding 30.8 per cent each, Munich Re 19.9 per cent (unchanged) while others hold 18.5 per cent (down from 37.5 per cent).
Meanwhile the company has since seen a change-of-guard at the helm, with Joseph FX Zahra taking over from Mario Grech who stepped down as Chairman.
