MBR Issue 1

Issue 1 – September 2014

CoVER SToRy A “Bottom Up” Approach

In our first cover story, MBR talks with Roberto d’Ambrosio, Director of Sales – Europe at FXDD- p.06

NEWS EXANTE’s Roots

EXANTE has definitely brought innovation and sophistication to Malta’s funds industry - p.55

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Welcome To My Palazzo

Italy’s most flamboyant politician, Silvio Berlusconi, in an in-depth revealing interview - p.28

INCOME & GROWTH INVESTMENT SOLUTIONS

Vilhena Global Balanced Multi-Manager Fund The Vilhena Global Balanced Multi-Manager Fund is designed to provide a diversified and well balanced global exposure across a broad range of collective investment schemes which invest in cash, bonds and/or equities.

This Fund, through a Multi-Manager approach, gives investors access to a selection of leading fund managers and to a wide array of investments, which are actively managed to provide a realistic prospect of capital growth and income over the longer term.

VILHENA GLOBAL BALANCED MULTI-MANAGER FUND 80072344 I vfm.com.mt

BOV Branches/Investment Centres & Licensed Financial Intermediaries *The income that the assets of the Fund generate in relation to their value or market, and the frequency of payment may vary and are not guaranteed. The value of the investment can go down as well as up and any initial charges and exit fees may lower the amount invested and the amount received upon redemptions. Investments should be based on the full details of the Prospectus, Fund Supplement and the KIID which may be obtained from Valletta Fund Management Limited (“VFM�), Bank of Valletta plc Branches/Investment Centres and other Licensed Financial Intermediaries. VFM is licensed to provide Investment Services in Malta by the MFSA. The Vilhena Funds SICAV plc is licensed by the MFSA and qualifies as a UCITS. Issued by VFM, TG Complex, Suite 2, Level 3, Brewery Street, Mriehel BKR 3000, Malta. Tel: 21227311, Fax: 22755661, Email: infovfm@bov.com, Website: www.vfm.com.mt. Source: VFM

AN ONLINE DIRECTORY OF ECOMMERCE RELATED SERVICES BLINK – the online eCommerce directory is an initiative emanating from the National eCommerce Strategy.

The Malta Communications Authority is inviting businesses and self-employed individuals who offer eCommerce-related services to register in its new online directory.

The purpose of this directory is to provide easy access to information about entities that supply products and/or services related to eCommerce. The directory is designed around a number of stages that reflect the different phases required to set up and run an online business.

The listing is on a voluntary basis and is free of charge.

The Authority encourages submissions from entities and individuals operating in the following areas, but not limited to:

HARDWARE/SOFTWARE WEB DESIGN WEB APPLICATIONS CONTENT MANAGEMENT CLOUD SERVICES

ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS (PAYMENT SERVICE PROVIDERS/GATEWAYS, BANKS, SHOPPING CARTS, etc) HOSTING SERVICES DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATION

NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES

DIGITAL MARKETING (INTERNET, SOCIAL MEDIA, MOBILE, SEO EXPERTS, etc)

BUSINESS PLANNING & FUNDING CONSULTANCY

BRAND CONSULTANCY

LEGAL CONSULTANCY

INTERNET SERVICE PROVISION

CATALOGUE DEVELOPMENT & INVENTORY MANAGEMENT SERVICES

DELIVERY SERVICES (COURIERS, SHIPPING AGENCIES, POSTAL OPERATORS, PACKAGING, etc)

eCOMMERCE PHOTOGRAPHY SERVICES

CUSTOMER SUPPORT (COMPLAINT HANDLING, ONLINE CONTENT MODERATION, CHAT & E-MAIL MGT, etc)

SCRIPT WRITING SERVICES

If you are interested in having your products and/or services listed on BLINK, please visit www.mca.org.mt/blink and complete the application form.

For any queries, please contact the MCA on 21 336840 or send an e-mail to ecommerce@mca.org.mt

Issue 1 – September 2014

CoVER SToRy A “Bottom Up” Approach

In our first cover story, MBR talks with Roberto d’Ambrosio, Director of Sales – Europe at FXDD- p.06

NEWS EXANTE’s Roots

EXANTE has definitely brought innovation and sophistication to Malta’s funds industry - p.55

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

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Welcome To My Palazzo

Italy’s most flamboyant politician, Silvio Berlusconi, in an in-depth revealing interview - p.28

pUBlIShEr MBR Publications Limited EdItor Martin Vella tEchNIcAl AdVISor Marcelle D’Argy Smith SAlES dIrEctor Margaret Brincat Art dESIGN Melanie Mifsud AdVErtISING 9940 6743 / 9926 0162; Email: margaret@mbrpublications.net; martin@mbrpublications.net

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coVEr Story

coNtrIBUtorS

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SpEcIAl thANKS

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Jonathan J Borg; John Follain; Ross Foster; Michelle Gialanze; Lewis Howes; Louis Naudi; Vince Magri; Anamaria Magri Pantea; Eileen V Muscat; Patrick J O’Brien; Antoinette Scerri; Bill Scheesele; Matthew Spiteri BAWAG Bank; BPC; Computime; EXANTE; European Research Council; FXDD; HSBC; IIG Bank; JP Advertising; Minister of Finance; Malta Stock Exchange; MJN Communications Ltd; TIP; The Malta Independent; Valletta Fund Management

EXANtE EVENt A mASSIVE SUccESS A Photo Gallery of the our recent and highly successful EXANTE Corporate Business Breakfast at Villa Arrigo

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mAltA GrEEN mANAGEmENt & AltErNAtIVE ENErGy coNfErENcE Find out more about Malta’s premier Green Energy summit, which brings together foreign and local green energy experts

offIcES 41B, Wayne, Triq il-Herba, Birkirkara, BKR 2322

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tElEphoNE +356 2149 7814

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KNowlEdGE & Ict fESt 2014 This year’s Knowledge and ICT Fest promises to be the event of the year at SmartCity Malta

thE coNtINUING dEVElopmENt of thE mAltA StocK EXchANGE Malta Stock Exchange plc CEO, Eileen V Muscat argues in favour of attracting SMEs to the capital markets

qUotE of thE moNth “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” - Dale Carnegie

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Dale Breckenridge Carnegie was an American writer and lecturer and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills.

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clUStErING for EXcEllENcE ANd INtErNAtIoNAlISAtIoN Anamaria Magri Pantea of Ascend Consultancy Ltd, provides an impartial evaluation about SMEs clustering for business networks

BANKING oN A fINANcIAl ShIft Award winning journalist Patrick J O’Brien, and resident correspondent journalist, writes about safer banks and a balanced financing mix

Disclaimer

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A “Bottom Up” ApproAch Roberto D’Ambrosio, FXDD’s Director of Sales - Europe, speaks to the Malta Business Review about FXDD’s growth technology and due diligence management

prINt prodUctIoN Velprint

All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by copyright may be reproduced or copied and reproduction in whole or part is strictly prohibited without written permission of the publisher. All content material available on this publication is duly protected by Maltese and International Law. No person, organisation, other publisher or online web content manager should rely, or on any way act upon any part of the contents of this publication, whether that information is sourced from the website, magazine or related product without first obtaining the publisher’s consent. The opinions expressed in the Malta Business Review are those of the authors or contributors, and are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher.

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EXclUSIVE INtErVIEw of thE moNth

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wElcomE, SIGNorE, to my pAlAzzo An in-depth, revealing and amusing interview with Italian magnate and infamous politician Silvio Berlusconi

CONTENTS featuRes

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Malta Residency Rules: changes in the tax systeM Antoinette Scerri, Tax Advisory Services Manager at Nexia BT discusses the latest developments regarding the ‘Permanent Residence” scheme

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Managing conflicts While Managing PRojects Architect Vince Magri deliberates on safe procedures in project management

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Bd: it’s not Rocket science, it’s PeoPle science Bill Scheesele, CEO of MBDI, shares his views about business development

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EntrEprEnEurship- A LifE ChAnging ExpEriEnCE – pArt 1 A dual contribution by Dr Michelle Gialanze and Profs Louis Naudi, on why supporting entrepreneurship is key to Malta’s future prosperity

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Making suRe you Meet the challenges of ModeRn Businesses A special article by Ross Foster about the importance of specialised training and range of skill sets

Malta Business Review

editorial t Malta Business Review, we believe in management first and foremost. If our local business organisations and institutions were run more effectively, if our leaders made more humane and effective decisions, if people knew how to work together more productively, we believe that all of us, including employees, bosses, customers, our families, and the people our businesses affect, would be much better off.

It is therefore our intention to provide our readers with quality content that provides ideas that help them be smarter, more creative, and more innovative in their work. To do that we have enlisted top foremost experts in business management theory and practice, who express their best thoughts in the most influential ways possible. The Malta Business Review also enhances the power of business networking by connecting with likeminded professionals, through a series of purposeful corporate events that we will be organising. In one small way or another, we have linked and made strategic partnerships that allow us to provide our readers with many valuable opportunities which improve the personal brand reputation. One such partnership with The Malta Independent stands out, and I wish to thank TMID’s Managing Director Noel Azzopardi for his collaboration on this project.

From our experience readers come to us not just to stay on top of new developments in management thinking, but also to get help change the way they and their companies actually do things and want their advertising to look different and be effective. We have built our reputation by letting people know who we are, and to deliver what we promise. Other than telling others how awesome we are, we tell them how we can make them or their businesses awesome with our expertise. It is with this in mind, that our publications will act as a marketplace for all business people who want to share their opinions on things related to their profession and industry. So, for those who are willing to write something about their expertise, they will have a better advantage in building their brand reputation with the Malta Business Review.

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In our first issue, we have secured the services of both local and foreign top talent, who provide quality writing that’s persuasive, informative and a pleasure to read.

As an editor, I have spent years learning what kind of headlines would give MBR pieces the best chance of being read, found in search engines, and shared both on social media and in offices. We want to be a mouthpiece for our readers, contributors and customers, who through their articles, speak in their own voice. We don’t publish pieces that have appeared elsewhere or that come across as promotional, unless that is something really special, such as the exclusive and insightful interview we present in this issue with Silvio Berlusconi.

On behalf of our editorial board and sales team, we thank everyone who have supported us in beginning this journey and will be considering working with us in future issues. May you enjoy the read.

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Martin Vella

www.maltabusinessreview.net

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Roberto d’Ambrosio with Finance & Operations Manager Fiona Soler and Compliance officer Michael Schembri

A “bottom up” ApproAch

by Martin Vella

In our first cover story, MBR talks with Roberto d’Ambrosio, Director of Sales – Europe, who discusses FXDD’s latest Forex technological developments and why FXDD continues to meet the demands of their clients by delivering the best technology, liquidity and support possible.

MBR: Can you please tell us about your professional background and what led you to FX market, culminating with the role of Director of Sales with FXDD? RDA: I have been involved in the financial industry for more than two decades, starting off as a stock and future trader, when the technology was not even close to the one we are experiencing nowadays.

I have worked for some of the most important Financial Advisors networks of primary Italian banks and before starting my experience with FXDD, I was involved in Institutional Advisory and Management 06

of Specialized Investment Funds and Hedge Funds. My experience in the Forex Market then developed as a trader and institutional advisor.

approach and extend it to all our European desks, further expanding our presence in this competitive but extremely interesting sector.

The size, the liquidity and the overall volatility characteristics of this market were so interesting that I started focusing on it, developing a great interest to the use of automated and algorithmic trading, becoming a trading and money management system developer.

MBR: What is your approach as the ‘guy’ who came from the opposite side of the fence?

I always thought that all the knowledge I had accumulated could be an asset for a Forex Broker and when FXDD offered me the possibility to join the European Office in Malta, I took the opportunity and started my career as the Sales Manager responsible for the Italian Desk. It has been a challenge, and the results have confirmed that my approach was the right one to tackle a tough and highly competitive market such as the Italian forex market. I was offered the role of Director of Sales in Malta in order to further develop this

RDA: I try to focus on what the trader really needs, as their needs, the issues they experience in their trading, the kind of answer they would expect from their broker… these are all matters that have been so familiar to me for so many years.

I really think that supporting the customer, when it comes to trading, should not be confined to basic support or sales related activities. We have to support our traders giving them what they really need: support from a well trained professional who really understands their needs and delivers solutions to any issue they may encounter.

I tried to spread this attitude towards the desks I manage and the feedback from our traders has been great so far.

Cover Story IntervIew - Malta Business Review

MBR: Can you highlight some of your significant achievements and/ or developments since taking up your position as Director of Sales in 2014?

RDA: I had the chance to join a fully regulated, well-established broker such as FXDD, which operates its Global business from Malta, a reputable and fast growing financial environment. This gave me the possibility to boost our presence in a highly competitive market such as Europe and attract the interest of experienced professionals in the industry. The European desk is growing steadily, enjoying a wellbalanced distribution among retail and institutional clients. FXDD has lately restructured its operations, giving us even more possibilities to effectively grow our market stake in Europe.

MBR: What can you tell us about FXDD’s future and your vision forward?

RDA: FXDD, with is long lasting presence as a fully regulated broker and its Global presence both in the retail and in the institutional market, is at the forefront when it comes to reliability and quality of access to market liquidity. As mentioned, FXDD has restructured its operations to further enhance the level of service to its Clients.

Just consider the acquisition of Boston Technologies which happened last month.

Such a strategic move will boost even more the level of access to market liquidity and all related technology, to the greatest benefit of both the institutional and retail business.

On the institutional side, the renowned FXDD capability of proposing real tailor made solutions for each sophisticated institutional Client will reach a unique level thanks to the integration between two market leaders.

New institutional partnerships are at sight and I am personally pretty confident that quite a number of them will be finalised soon. The retail traders are enjoying an even enhanced trading experience, and new price tiers and products are about to be at their disposal to effectively trade the market of their choice and diversify their investments.

We have lately integrated new currency pairs and new metals, such as palladium and platinum. More will come soon, fully integrated in one of the widest offers of trading platforms in the market.

MBR: Are there certain trends that might give us an insight on FXDD market related developments?

RDA: The Forex market has mainly been driven by two objectives: technology development and regulation enhancements. I believe regulators will continue to enhance their presence and control on the financial market. Forex has developed into a mature, well-regulated market and major brokerages like FXDD welcome new securities that protect the end-user. I see an upward trend in the amount of sophisticated traders entering the market. These traders demand a safe environment to trade in, with state of the art technology to gain an edge in trading.

In order to continue our growth, FXDD continues to meet the demands of our

Malta Stock Exchange won the Most Innovative Stock Exchange category of the prestigious 2014 Acquisition International Magazine Business Excellence Awards clients by delivering the best technology, liquidity, and support possible. FXDD understands its trader’s needs by offering unrestricted support that acts as a platform for client feedback. I believe that we should continue to focus on creating solutions for all of our traders’ demands by continuing our “bottom up” approach to developing new technologies.

MBR: What propels FXDD to be at the forefront of technology?

RDA: Passionate and continuous research: since the beginning this has been the main focus of FXDD, allowing it to be at the

BACKGROUND Mr Roberto d’Ambrosio has been with FXDD Malta Limited since May 2013 and today holds the role of Director of Sales – Europe. He is a professional with more than 20 years’ experience in Financial Services, Stocks, Futures and Forex. Formerly, he served as an institutional advisor to Specialized Investment Funds and Hedge Funds, focused on automated algorithmic trading. Mr d’Ambrosio is a technical analyst, highly knowledgeable on trading systems, and a developer of money management systems.

forefront of technology. FXDD developed the first retail FX brokerage to integrate an in-house MetaTrader 4 bridge for enhanced trade execution. Since then, there has been continuous research for improvements, both by developing in-house proprietary technology and developing partnerships with external providers to offer traders their preferred trading tools and platforms.

MBR: How would you describe your company’s value proposition in such a competitive environment?

RDA: I mentioned a “bottom up” approach.

There is a lot of value in focusing all your efforts and basing your development plans on your Client needs. New products, new tools, new platforms are not “imposed” on the Clients, but researched, created and produced on the basis of their feedback.

Thanks to a client centered support system which, besides assisting Clients in their needs, is also capable of identifying their requirements, thus forming an exceptional “database of wills” on which we plan our future development.

MBR: What is your personal opinion about Malta as a financial market place and what is your experience about our country?

RDA: Malta has developed in a premier financial market and great credit in this respect goes to the MFSA, which has done a remarkably good job in implementing all European regulation in a timely and extremely professional way. In our field of business the safety of a well-regulated environment and the stability of the banking sector are both essential.

Malta Stock Exchange won the Most Innovative Stock Exchange category of the prestigious 2014 Acquisition International Magazine Business Excellence Awards and the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index 2010-2011 has ranked Malta as having the 10th soundest banking sector and 11th in financial market development. The Maltese banking system is solid and with sound ratios and governance. We experience such excellence in our daily operation.

My personal experience of Malta and the Maltese people has been great so far. The level of professionalism of local entrepreneurs is exceptional and my relationship with the local management is excellent. From a personal point of view, being Italian and from the south of my country, it feels like home in this fantastic Mediterranean environment and I look forward to reciprocating the exceptional and warm welcome I have enjoyed so far. MBR www.maltabusinessreview.net

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Young EntrEprEnEurs - Malta Business Review

Letter to a Young Entrepreneur:3 Things to Remember

by Lewis Howes Sometimes, inspiration comes from unlikely places.

Rainer Maria Rilke is a favorite well-known poet of the early 20th century. One of the great legacies he left behind is a volume entitled Letters to a Young Poet which was published posthumously by the young man whom he generously corresponded with for nearly five years.

Letters to A Young Poet is a volume of 10 letters written to a young man named Franz Kappus. Kappus was 19 years old, about to enter the German military, and he wrote Rilke looking for guidance and a critique of some of his poems. Rilke was himself only 27 when the first letter was written. The volume is a virtual owner’s manual on what it is (and what is required) to be an artist and a person.

While reading his advice to his young artist friend, it occurred to me that these suggestions apply to young entrepreneurs as well, artists in their own right.

1. Live in the question.

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. ...live in the question.” -- Rilke

When I was starting out as a young entrepreneur, living on my sister’s couch, I had so many unanswered questions. I didn’t know how I was going to continue my athletic career while I was recovering from the injury that took me out of professional football, but I was determined not to give up on my dream to be a pro athlete. I knew a few things for certain -- that I didn’t want to work for anyone else and that I wanted to build a business that would allow me to have the lifestyle and freedom I desired.

Rather than trying to figure it all out at once or being stunted by “analysis paralysis,” I put one foot in front of the other despite

the questions and followed my strengths. The things that I built my business on were my passions then -- networking, sports management, and speaking. Things change as we follow those footsteps, so learn to understand it is the journey that counts, not the destination.

We live mostly in the questions anyway, not in the answers, so we need to relax into those questions, set our goals, and enjoy the ride.

2. Maintain an attitude of gratitude.

“If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell

yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for to the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place.” -- Rilke

I was a pain in the ass most of my childhood, always mad at the things I didn’t have. Things shifted drastically in my 20′s when I started putting an emphasis on gratitude. Once that happened, I saw abundance everywhere no matter what my circumstances.

Focus on the good in your life, not the things you lack. Each day we have the opportunity to learn something new, apologize for our mistakes, and reiterate our commitments.

3. Let your fear be your coMpass.

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage.” -- Rilke

There are ways to handle situations and instances in your life, but worrying about them never does much. Feel your fear and do it anyway.

My friend and sports psychologist Dr. Jeff Spencer told me this once and it stuck with me. Elite athletes feel fear just like everyone else, but they channel that fear to fuel their spirit and passion for competition. MBR Courtesy: Entrepreneur

Lewis Howes Lifestyle Entrepreneur, Coach, Advisor A former professional athlete, New York Citybased Lewis Howes is co-author of Linked Working (418 Press, 2009) and creator of the LinkedInfluence training program.

www.maltabusinessreview.net

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Motoring - Malta Business Review

Muscats Motors extends their BMW range Designed for Driving Pleasure The BMW X4

The BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe

BMW together with Muscats Motors proudly launched the new BMW 4 Series Gran Coupé together with the new X4. The Launch event took place at the stunning Xara Lodge where not only these incredible models were displayed but also the remaining of the 4 Series family, which include the Coupe and Convertible range.

The 4 Series Gran Coupé is the first fourdoor coupé in the premium midsize class that represents a consistent extension of the model range. Following the launch of the BMW 4 Series Coupé and Convertible, the Gran Coupé is the third model to join the new BMW 4 Series, which is longer, wider and more dynamic than any of

the previous midsize series due to the balanced proportions of the vehicles. The new BMW 4 Series Gran Coupé combines the sleek look of a two-door coupé with the functionality provided by four-doors and expansive spaciousness, including a wide-access luggage compartment. The smallest engines available for this model are 420i and 418d.

The other star of the event was the BMW X4. The new BMW X4 blends the hallmark features of the successful BMW X family with the sporting elegance of a classical coupe, and introduces the unique Sports Activity Coupe concept to the premium mid-size segment. Its dynamic pedigree is underlined by a wide range of cutting-edge high-performance engines, the xDrive allwheel-drive system and an exclusive spread of standard equipment features such as variable sport steering, Performance

Control and a sports leather steering wheel with gearshift paddles. For this unbelievable model the starting available engines include X4 xDrive 20i and 20d.

The starting price of the 4 Series Gran Coupé and X4 are €39,950 and €54,950 respectively. These prices include various options such as Bluetooth, front and rear parking sensors, automatic air-conditioning amongst many others. MBR

For further information on these outstanding models, contact Muscats Motors on 2326 4581/2 or email on info@mml.mizzi.com.mt. Book your test drive today and experience the Sheer Driving Pleasure that these incredible vehicles have to offer.

www.maltabusinessreview.net

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Malta Business Review - EVENT Of ThE MONTh

EXANTE EVENT A MASSIVE SUCCESS Sterling OrganiSatiOn by PrOPerty & life eventS guaranteeS an unfOrgettable eXante branding event at villa arrigO

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event of the month - Malta Business Review

www.maltabusinessreview.net

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Malta Business Review - EvEnt Of thE MOnth

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Green enerGy event - Malta Business Review

MALTA GREEN MANAGEMENT & ALTERNATIVE ENERGY CONFERENCE Creating a Positive Difference, Date: 30th October, 2014 | Venue: Villa Arrigo

About the event - Covering various topical issues, including use of commercial and utility systems, LED lighting devices, sales and marketing, code compliance, alternative energy and transmission, and distribution industries. Featuring overseas industry professionals and VIP guest speakers, converging to network, share ideas and enhance their knowledge and skills in a high quality conference programme, this event will also promote a greener Malta initiative, thus providing a platform for local companies to learn about new technologies, opportunities and strategies developing in this sector.

MUs and leading experts, industries, commercial property owners, managers, building and construction engineers, alternative energy and sustainable energy users from various Industries gather at the Green Alternative Energy B2B Networking Forum to share solutions, knowledge and latest product technology with a look at mitigation of both social and ecological impacts.

Malta 1st Green Alternative Energy event, being held in the open green grounds of Villa Arrigo, will be attracting participants from a wide variety of industries ranging from Financial Services, Business Services to Retail to Hospitality, Engineering, Building and Construction, ICT, as well as manufacturing and industry sectors, bringing together all the constituted bodies and leading alternative energy experts. More than half of the attendees are senior directors, CEOs, business owners and DMUs from companies around Malta.

A broad mix of high profile keynote speakers from different walks of the business community, including technology vendors, manufacturers, business owners and senior executives will be attending during the forum.

Various entities, companies, exhibitors and sponsors will be on hand to provide advice for all to find the most viable technology solutions for their needs. Exhibitors at the event will include a microcosm of the Maltese alternative energy landscape (A shortlist is being compiled and sent in due course).

Business owners from several leading organisations in Malta, will be invited to take centre stage as speakers during the morning conference sessions and afternoon workshops designed as a crucial resource for business wishing to cut on their energy bills and running costs.

COnFerenCe

This event has been designed for people interested in using alternative energy for their workplaces, factories, buildings, offices, hotels, restaurants, SMEs, institutions, government administrators/managers, Date Time

Friday 31st October 08:00 Registration 09:00 Opening Speech (Ministers/Chairman) 09:30 Sets of presentations 10:45 Networking Coffee 11:30 Sets of presentations 12:30 Closing Speeches 13:00 Networking 14:00 2 Workshops 15:30 Event Closing

TECHNICAl PRESENTATIONS/WORKSHOPS • Awaiting topic but related to SMART Technologies for sustainability – Profs Joseph Cilia • lED lighting within a building- a Case Study – Ing. Matthew Spiteri • Designing an effective PV system within your company – Ing. Neville Azzopardi • Waste Management within companies - Francis Micallef • Energy Auditing- Knowing your Energy Footprint - Eng. Diane Cassar • Efficient Thermal Generation – a Case Study – TBC

building and construction engineers, energy policy makers, etc.

Participants will gain rich insights, market intelligence and practical advice on how to optimise resources to build their businesses.

Key Topics to be covered include: > Plan an Energy Efficiency and/or Renewable Energy Outreach and Education > Cost competitive energy > Efficiency and renewable energy options and opportunities and/or educate organisations about ways they can actively and effectively improve the cost competitiveness of EE/RE products for their constituency. > Form content and/or financial collaborations with partners who share the goal of educating Maltese consumers about cost competitive EE/RE options and opportunities. > Effectively market, advertise and promote the Energy Efficiency and/or Renewable > Energy Outreach and Education Event (e.g Social Media, market outreach and promotion techniques) in collaboration with appropriate partner organizations.

By the end of the event, participants will sharpen their entrepreneurial skills and gain a fresh outlook on how to build competitive advantage in the market place. Participants will also gain from networking through the experiences of other entrepreneurs who will be in attendance.

Who will attend?

Owners, Decision Makers, Chairman, Managing Directors, Executive Directors and General Managers, Engineers – Chamber of Engineers, Hoteliers, project managers, Medium Sized companies, corporate finance organisations and institutions, banks, EU funding and consultation companies, travel and hospitality, business professionals, etc. MBR For further information and registration please contact: Margaret Brincat 0n 9940 6743 margaret@mbrpublications.net

Workshops • Running a more sustainable business. Is there just one solution? – Ing. Matthew Spiteri & (foreign) speakers in this sector from a group of companies specialising in Smart and Green Energy, such as Waste-to-Energy (involving certified, bankable, commercialised pyrogassification plants) Business Plan for the Maltese Islands, Green Energy Agro Farming from B/W2E, Aquaponics, etc.

• Presentation about an innovative and much needed Green Business opportunity, also featuring other clients who are experts in Smart Buildings Management Systems: Smart Lighting & HVAC, Water Recycling & Conservation and more for the Hospitality, Commercial and the Domestic market.

speakers Ministers • Konrad Mizzi, Minister for Energy & Healthcare • Leo Brincat – Minister for the Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change • Ian Borg - Parliamentary Secretary for the EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds GovernMent experts • MRA Energy Expert – Ing. Peter Mifsud • Energy Ministry Expert – Ing. Godwin Sant • Local council association – Jimmy Magro • Wasteserv - access to Finance talks • Bank • Malta Enterprise • Private EU fund company speaker – Dr. Anton Theuma

www.maltabusinessreview.net

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CAR | HOME | HEALTH | TRAVEL | BOAT | PET | WEDDING | BUSINESS

BUY & RENEW ONLINE! The easy way to organise all of your insurance needs. Buy and renew your insurance policies online.

Agents for:

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Laferla Insurance Agency Limited, Vincenti Buildings, Old Bakery Street, Valletta VLT 1453.

Tel: 2122 4405

Fax: 2124 6704

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Laferla Insurance Agency Limited is licensed to act as an insurance agent for Middlesea Insurance p.l.c. and both companies are authorised to transact insurance business by the Malta Financial Services Authority.

Knowledge & ICT weeK - Malta Business Review

17th -22nd NOVEVEMBER

KNOWLEDGE & ICT

4

FEST 201

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one ORGAnISeD BY

venue

PReSenTS

every

Property & Life Events

will be an excellent opportunity to tap into conduct new concept and and interactive Under the Patronage Auspices of the Minister of Education For more information please contact propertylife2013@gmail.com seminars and workshops. or call on 99406743 or 99260162 knowledge and experience that can be hard to The week opens with a great launch. VIP come by at times.

he empowerment of knowledge and the teaching of ICT, now computing, has always entailed organic changes from year to year. Since the wholesale shift in focus towards computing, however, the future heralds even greater upheaval.

There are few who doubt the importance of ICT, but how it fits into schools is open for debate.

It is without doubt that this year, we are providing a platform for all the ICT and HR companies in Malta to come together with students and teachers teachers of ICT under one roof for the largest gathering of its kind in Malta. As such, we have devoted this week to helping IT vendors promote their latest technologies, HR & recruitment agencies find their objective, stationers showcase latest products, book sellers exhibit latest publications, learned scholars and academia implement the adjustments and the arguments that surround them together with students, and leading experts in ICT, robotics, technology and internet

guests and key note speakers tackle the subject change from different positions. Do you agree that computer science “provides a unique lens through which to understand the world”? Or do you stand w that “changing the name of the subject from ICT to computing is limiting the subject and would narrow our curriculum”?

Finally, we round up the week with an award winning gala dinner with unique entertainment and the participation of Tribali. MBR

We have a variety of educational and knowledge forums, networking activities and shows through contributions from qualified experts who take us through this journey delivering insightful and meaningful lectures.

We also are preparing a variety of entertainment featuring a hot air balloon, an underwater submarine, horse-riding and boat show, apart from a host of other activities which will be announced on our official programme.

We also examine the pathways graduates can take to train as a specialist teacher of computing. It seems that more help is required on this front.

We also interview all the exhibitors and provide ample room for a host of collateral and value added benefits through our Sponsor Prospectus. Towards the end of the week we have an excellent panel lined up for a live chat on how to teach the new computing curriculum. Our experts will be on hand to discuss delivery of the new requirements. It

Be sure to share your thoughts and make sure that if you are an ICT provider or ICT company to participate. For more information and exhibitor/sponsor packages please contact us on 21497814 / 9926 0162 / 9940 6743, or by emailing margaret@mbrpublications.net or martin@mbrpublications.net

www.maltabusinessreview.net

17

Malta Business Review - Smes

The conTinuing developmenT

Malta Stock Exchange

The economic growth and the overall state of national well-being that today is synonymous with Malta is no coincidence, but the result of a number of guiding factors that have contributed to the development and stability of our island republic. Political, economic, social, and educational leaders have influenced the way Malta has grown, and continues to grow, in spite of the turbulent circumstances that surround us.

In the economic environment, there is a lot to be said of the resilience of traditional banking services built on cautious and solid foundations, and the level of access to finance that companies have as a result 18

of a well-developed and solid banking infrastructure. The economy is made of SMEs, or micro SMEs, and over the years, Banks clearly gave the economy that much needed level of liquidity, flexibility and mobility of depositor funds that invariably create the domino and multiplier effect of generating income through money supply and turnover, creating value, wealth and economic growth. It is also true that the capital market in Malta can be said to have succeeded with the difference that while the provision of banking services goes back many decades, the existence of the formal capital market and the more direct interaction between investors and listed companies goes back just 23 years. During this period, the Exchange has appropriately focused its main efforts on the operations that surround its primary function - the trading of listed financial instruments,

together with the necessary clearing and settlement processes and management of the Depository. This has been a successful growth phase that has seen the listing of over 40 companies, through equity and bond issues, and the issuance of over €15 billion in equity, corporate and government bonds and treasury bills. This certificate of success must be equated to the fact that this activity took place on a developing island economy with a GDP of €6.5 billion and a population of just over 400,000. One should also appreciate that a significant level of this investment mostly came from Maltese private as well as institutional investors.

The critical mass of market capitalisation today stands at over €9 billion and there is an appetite for new opportunities for investment amongst a very ‘retail’ investor base ensuring that subsequent issues

SMes - Malta Business Review

of the Malta Stock exchange

by Eileen V Muscat

additional benefit of creating an exit route for existing shareholders, who may have a relatively diluted stake in the business.

Succession planning is something that is often overlooked, and it is clear that businesses need to prepare for when they move into 2nd and 3rd generation levels of ownership.

SMEs will remain the backbone of our economy. They are key to sustaining economic growth, employment, creating creative opportunities as well as goods and services, and we need to ensure that SMEs are able to focus their energy on these factors, and not on non-productive processes and issues. Bureaucracy needs to be kept at a minimum. The administrational costs of doing business, of raising adequate finance, of compliance, of transport, and of recruitment need to be commensurate to the size of the business, such that they remain a necessary, but relatively small, cost to the entrepreneur who often has limited time, resources, or even patience to handle these matters.

Eileen V Muscat, CEO Malta Stock Exchange plc

In our SME-driven economy, we feel that there are the right circumstances to attract privately owned, family-run companies to the capital market

are likely to be consistently successful.

This level of confidence in the market by investors combined with the increasingly entrepreneurial private sector has created an environment that allows the capital market to co-exist with the traditional banking sector, and ensures a fairly regular supply of new listings and related investment opportunities coming to market.

The Malta Stock Exchange is still growing. In our SME-driven economy, which is mostly built on family-run businesses, we feel that there are the right circumstances to attract privately owned, family run companies to the capital market. This could be through the sale or issue of new equity, or the issue of corporate bonds. The benefits of seeking a listing are clear – access to new capital in a cost-effective manner, without the need to put up collateral, the branding and corporate identity of being a listed company, and the valuation and visibility of the business on a very well monitored market are just a few of these benefits. One cannot underestimate the value of being a listed company when seeking international markets, since this gives the company additional credibility when marketing itself overseas. Of course, the listing of equity of family run businesses would also create the

The Exchange will continue to grow, through the creation of networking opportunities that could result in higher levels of international investment in Maltese assets, or indeed, through the setting up of operations and seeking Admission to Listing in Malta, greater levels of interaction between more Members of the Exchange, new products that the trading platform will support, and new services that the CSD will be able to offer.

We feel that these are key to the continuing development of the Maltese Capital Markets and the growth of this sector both in Malta as well as internationally. MBR

www.maltabusinessreview.net

19

WHEN PEOPLE CONNECT, SOLUTIONS FALL INTO PLACE. At HSBC we helped Technoline, one of Malta’s leading companies in the medical and scientific industry, to connect to the right people to restructure operations and set new goals in line with the company’s strategy.

See how our Relationship Managers in more than 60 countries can support Maltese Businesses.

Call us on 2380 8000 or visit www.hsbc.com.mt/commercialbankingconnect

If you see it, we see it.

Approved and issued by HSBC Bank Malta p.l.c.,116, Archbishop Street, Valletta VLT1444.

eBiz AwArds - Malta Business Review

The MalTa CoMMuniCaTions auThoriTy eBusiness awards 2014 The Malta Communications Authority is pleased to announce that the applications for nominations for the fourth edition of the MCA eBusiness Awards are now open.

he MCA eBiz awards are singled out as a unique annual event of its kind in Malta because it is the only award that acknowledges the use of technology in the entrepreneurial efforts of individuals and organizations A well established industry forum, these awards bring together talented ICT professionals to recognize innovative and unique business initiatives that blend webbased technologies with entrepreneurial flair. In particular, these awards seek to promote adoption and innovation in ICT applications in the ever-more growing eBusiness domain and create awareness about the potential of web-based technologies to spur economic growth and social development.

The MCA took into account the feedback from past participants, as well as from a wide spectrum of companies within the ICT industry, with regard to the establishment of the categories for this years’ edition. The categories are as follows: • Best eGov initiative • Best eCommerce site (B2C) • Best B2B application

• Best App • Best use of Social Media • Best use of the Cloud • Best MBA thesis (in collaboration with University of Malta) Interested parties are invited to submit their nomination by no later than 12.00hrs on Friday, 19th September 2014, after which an independent adjudication committee comprising experts from academia, the private industry and the Government will be appointed to jointly evaluate, short-list and select a winner for each category.

In a brief comment about this year’s awards MCA Chairman Dr Edward Woods said that ‘’MCA will continue to sustain initiatives that offer the local business community the opportunity and the right context to showcase its innovative solutions and approaches to overcome the increasing challenges of a global competitive environment.’’ Dr Woods added that ‘Our aim is to encourage further innovation through ICT applications - an essential ingredient in today’s dynamic business setting’’.

Applications are open to any organisation that has, to some degree, integrated ICT as part of its operational setup. MBR

Interested parties may submit their nominations through a simple online application by logging on to mca.org.mt/ebiz-awards. For further information about this year’s MCA eBusiness Awards, one may contact the MCA by email on info@mca.org.mt or by calling on (+356 21336840).

www.maltabusinessreview.net

21

Malta Business Review - eu

Clustering for exCellenCe and internationalisation

by Anamaria Magri Pantea

Over 99% of enterprises in Europe are SMEs and over 92% are microenterprises with less than 10 employees. One therefore cannot question the need for clusters and for business networks that can facilitate collaboration frameworks for knowledge transfer, economies of scale and scope. This is even more so in today’s context, one of internationalization and global market competition.

ince Michael Porter advanced his tenet that clusters are the engine for regional economic development, and a good number of initiatives were undertaken over the last 25 years across the world on this basis, time and experience has proven that neither “pull” nor “push” policies on their own can deliver the best results. On one side, the enterprises within a sector must feel the need and be ready to cluster and collaborate, whilst on the other side, the public sector intervention is needed to promote, encourage, facilitate and support the establishment of such clusters. The latter became even more evident as the concept of clusters evolved in the last years, from enterprise-only constituencies, to memberships covering the entire knowledge triangle – enterprises, research and academia organizations.

The enterprises within a sector must feel the need and be ready to cluster and collaborate

And whilst such pooling of forces is even more important in small open economies like Malta’s, the small size of our market also affects the business culture in general. It often serves as a deterrent to 22

EU - Malta Business Review

collaboration for fear of loss of market share. The fear of losing out internal market to the competition many times outweighs the benefits of teaming up for pursuing larger international markets.

However, we have definitely seen improvements in this sense over the last years. After some mid 2000s initiatives in the printing and plastics sector, followed by the great success of the FinanceMalta public-private partnership in internationally promoting our financial services industry, we are now noticing a number of other sectoral clusters emerging. These are for example in ICT – Information and Communication Technologies, ITS – Intelligent Transport Systems, MICE tourism – Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Events, in Life Sciences, logistics and warehousing, and others.

Once such sectoral clusters show signs of emergence, it is very important that they pursue and integrate themselves into wider support frameworks, like for example the European-level Cluster Policy Group, Cluster Observatory, Cluster Alliance, Cluster Excellence Initiative, and Cluster Partnerships. To improve the professionalisation and quality standards within cluster services, the European Commission has been supporting for some years now various initiatives and projects, often attempting to link-up and interconnect all these across Europe.

Currently for example, the European Commission has an open Call for Proposals under its Clusters Excellence Programme.

Since 2009 when the European Clusters Excellence Initiative was launched, a number of projects were already supported 1.

2.

3.

to design, test and validate a benchmarking methodological tool to be used by cluster organisations to identify and improve their internal management process and the way they offer services to cluster firms, to develop training materials with the ultimate goal to help cluster managers improving their own managerial capability, to validate and apply the benchmarking tool and the training materials developed by means of train-the-trainers schemes.

Whilst the direct beneficiaries in the previous projects were officials working in regional or national public organisations managing cluster activities, this current

Call is directly addressed to consortia of cluster organisations or business networks. The specific benchmarking and training activities are dedicated to cluster management, being implemented at that level and delivered by competent trainers in the field. The aim is to assist cluster organisations, business networks and their managers to provide high quality services to SMEs in different areas, including internationalisation, better exploiting and diffusing key enabling technologies (e.g.

ICT), integrating creativity and innovation into their business, IPRs protection and further addressing resource-efficiency issues.

The aim is to assist cluster organisations, business networks and their managers to provide high quality services to SMEs in different areas, including internationalisation

Eligible consortia under this Call have to be made up of a minimum of three cluster organisations or business networks, from three different EU Members States, all registered members of the European Cluster Collaboration Platform. To encourage newcomers, the European Commission is asking that at least one of the participating partners in the consortia must not have any previous experience on working on cluster management.

This is hence an opportunity for Maltese participation.

Moreover, another Call for Proposals is expected to be launched this autumn under the Clusters Internationalisation Programme. With a view to better support SMEs to join the global competition, the aim of this programme is to support and promote pan-European Strategic Cluster Partnerships developing a joint international strategy, beyond Europe, especially in emerging thematic areas.

In this sense, EU funding at a 95% cofinancing level will be provided to support preparatory actions for the establishment and shaping of new European Strategic Cluster Partnerships or the further development and running of established ones. New such partnerships could thus get support for the identification of strategic partners across Europe, the development of a legal representation, the preparation of a joint branding and marketing strategy

and a roadmap for cooperation, amongst others. Established partnerships on the other hand could get assistance in implementing tailored analysis and fact-finding missions for opening of a joint office abroad, international cluster SMEs matchmaking missions, as well as follow-up actions providing assistance for preparing joint business plans and bankable proposals by such SMEs. Such projects are also intended to develop synergies with the cluster related projects for new industrial value chains in the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, the inter-regional activities for cluster cooperation funded under the European Territorial Cooperation (INTERREG) Programme and the European Regional Development Fund supported actions, for example in the context of smart specialisation strategies.

Indeed, with Malta’s draft Operational Programme for the ERDF 2014-2020 also clearly highlighting envisaged investments in SME hubs, creative clusters and business incubators, particularly in support of collaborative, innovation and internationalisation activities, the future looks promising for the sectors that believe in the power of clustering and working together. MBR

EDITOR’S NOTE Anamaria Magri Pantea is a specialist in EU funding, innovation management and business development.

Holding an Honours Degree in Economics with specialisation in Finance and a Master in Business Administration with Distinction, she has over thirteen years of experience in structuring, funding sourcing, management, coordination, supervision and evaluation of projects at both macro and micro level.

For further information please visit www. ascendconsulting.eu or email anamaria@ ascendconsulting.eu.

www.maltabusinessreview.net

23

Festive Lighting

Wall decorative lighting

Bar running lights

Street Signage Lighting

Our clients give us the opportunity to break boundaries in the field of energyefficient lighting... ...we give them the opportunity to be unique while saving real costs!

www.smartlightsystems.com E: info@smartlightsystems.com T: 27022901 / 77777101

Solar Park Lighting

smaRt tech - Malta Business Review

Lighting

RevoLutions

by Jonathan J. Borg

We are living in a world where a consumer can rarely think of something which is not readily available on the market and after a few clicks of a button and a few days have the item delivered right to their door. This unlimited virtual shopping area is a mecca for those who wish to have something in their hands fast, and for the most part do not realise that they are buying something which is not unique in any way and most probably the neighbours and their kin have the same exact item.

uch a situation is acceptable and almost not even noticed in today’s world, however when it comes to home décor or outdoor fixtures then the ball park changes completely. We then try to better every magazine image and show off our uniqueness in taste and design by matching contrasting colours and buying that one item which looks out of place but yet closes the whole image of perfection.

In such a scenario many people leave the most basic requirement as a last point to think about, lighting. At this point with all the area planned and all the colour schemes in place we start to panic a little inside because as we go from shop to shop and surf the net for endless hours we manage to find something which either gives off too much light, or does not match the décor in any way and then a sacrifice has to happen between what you want, and what is available and every time you return to that new area, you will always go back to the thought that it is not exactly how you wanted it.

This is a situation which we face every day at Smart Light Systems with our clients. Being Malta’s only LED manufacturer we have years of experience coupled with a desire to push boundaries in the field of lighting solutions.

Most of our clients come to us with a concept or an image of how they would like an area to look like what effects they are hoping to achieve

in their gardens or patios, how they wish to accentuate the façade features or, in the case of local councils, how to make their streets safer in a simple cost-effective manner.

Over the years we have developed several solutions such as casino wall lighting, park lighting solutions, illuminated street signage, hotel entrance lighting, aquarium lighting and display board lighting. We admit that there are also similar products which one can readily find at the click of a button, however we develop these products to our customers’ specific requests and tastes and unlike the online supplier we are physically here to help you through the process of what the unique end product will look like to installation and beyond. More so through experience we understand the kind of obstacles which one can find when installing over another installation and how to rectify a product to withstand any expected power anomalies over its life time.

recreational areas, historical building facades or areas still under urban development.

Apart from years of experience, we have proudly won several accolades over the years including two silver awards at the 2011 Living Labs Global Showcase, as well as most recently the 2014 Most Entrepreneurial Company of the Year at the MSV Life Corporate Awards.

Through constant investment in research and development we push boundaries of energy efficient lighting innovation and in turn we strive to deliver a unique energy-efficient product to our customers, whilst proudly creating green jobs and opportunities within our local economy. MBR

Most recently we have also managed to incorporate our solutions with solar technology making most of our products completely autonomous from the national grid, using our in-house developed inverter technology. This has not only given our clients the opportunity to further save on energy and installation costs, but also to have lighting in areas where electrical supply was not possible such as public www.maltabusinessreview.net

25

talking point - Malta Business Review

Banking on a financial shift

by Special Correspondent & Award Winning Journalist Patrick J. O’Brien

Malta’s financial sector is in many ways the brainchild of the Bank of England, a connection that has seen the republic hover above a horde of financial storms. It has to be noted though, that well before the present economic crisis, the European banking system had become unhealthily large. It was too leveraged, too big relative to the size of national economies, and perhaps too dominant relative to capital markets. Thus, the effect of a downsizing banking sector and the emergence of smaller banks might in fact be a blessing in disguise that is, a shift towards safer banks and a more balanced financing mix.

Maintaining stability of the Malta’s financial industry is the role of the central bank, constantly monitoring the banking infrastructure and the markets under a comprehensive early warning system, a system which alerts the institution to any emerging risks and potential shocks. Both the central bank and MFSA are in many ways catalysts for the rapid but responsible growth of the financial sector with many banking brands relocating here.

The time honored presence of Malta’s biggest banks, BOV and HSBC is being constantly challenged by the influx of new banks that believe that they can cull business successfully with a new approach. The variable of small banks offering banking services is steadily gaining market share from the traditional big banks. Up to now the lack of competition that exists between the five domestic banks presently is clearly evident, HSBC, Banif, APS , BOV and Lombard Bank market concentration recorded the highest in the eurozone. New opportunities and niches exist for potential new investment banks For the customer though, the appetite for choice has never been greater, the larger banks foible in recent years has been the heavy costs associated with staffing and overseeing

branches, leaving most villages throughout the island without a bank.

The debate about whether these new small banks are better than large ones is frankly lost with most. What really matters is systemic stability and customer service, and both of these can be put at risk by bad behavior from banks of any size. In saying that banks of all sizes have their advantages and disadvantages The European Commission’s competition regulators are busily trying to force banks to divest. It wants its banks to erect firewalls between their parts. Although not exactly splitting them up, it wants dotted lines drawn to allow for easy separation should that be required. Officials are pushing hard to tilt the competitive playing field in a way that will advantage smaller banks.

There is broad agreement that banking competition is good for consumers because it promotes innovation and drives down prices. In banking, however, regulators have on the whole seen too much competition as something best avoided because of the dangers it may pose to the whole banking system. As the Island hurdles towards 2018 many international companies are shifting and one of the main focuses will be how banks can facilitate their specific needs on the island. MBR www.maltabusinessreview.net

27

Welcome, signore, to my palazzo

by John Follain

Convicted of sexual offences and tax fraud, Silvio Berlusconi gives his first interview following his conviction and rehabilitation

taly’s most flamboyant politician, Silvio Berlusconi, has one eye on his political future. He is embroiled in the biggest political and personal crisis of his career — he faces the possibility of house arrest and exile to the political wilderness after convictions for sexual offence and tax fraud. At the age of 77, he is also contemplating the legacy he will leave behind. In the grounds of his 18th‐century Villa San Martino, north of Milan, he has constructed a family mausoleum with a huge sarcophagus in pink marble. He wants to be laid to rest here; wherever he ends up, his reputation as Italy’s most colourful and longest‐serving postwar prime minister will endure.

Even after the tribulations of recent years, Berlusconi shows no sign of slowing down. He is determined to return to front‐line politics and is relaunching the Forza Italia party with which he began his political career. He has already bounced back from a series of scandals that would break a weaker man, regarding himself as a victim of what he calls “coups d’état” in which prosecutors and judges have 28

fought to wrest power from him. Over the course of his business and political career he has accumulated immense riches and been accused of corruption and sexual offences, ensuring that the phrase “bunga bunga” became part of the international lexicon.

with Old Masters, renaissance antiques and exquisite Chinese porcelain; it is lit by huge chandeliers fashioned from Murano glass.

Berlusconi has a personal fortune that Forbes estimates at $6.2bn (£3.8bn). He is Italy’s seventh‐richest man.

He has agreed to meet me at the palazzo where he has been accused of hosting many of the alleged erotic parties. He has denied there was anything sexual about them, describing them as “elegant dinners”. The sprawling yellow villa is Berlusconi’s main home, and this is the first time that a journalist from outside Italy has interviewed him there in more than a decade. I am driven to the property by a chauffeur through the winter fog that shrouds the Milan suburbs. A huge steel gate bearing a coat of arms swings open and we drive across a courtyard. We arrive at the house, and I am greeted by Berlusconi’s personal butler.

Berlusconi himself has supplied the personal touch — framed photographs of his children from two marriages. Everything is in perfect order: magazines are placed regimentally in a line on a coffee table and there is not a hint of the debauchery that judges say happened here — the alleged “bunga‐bunga” sex parties with showgirls, models and prostitutes — not all of them, according to prosecutors, over the age of 18. Members of his entourage say that nowadays, Berlusconi has few visitors.

He appears to have settled down as he takes stock of his life and contemplates the next move in his political comeback — not by any means his first.

The butler leads the way past a chest‐high, brightly coloured globe of the Earth in the lobby and through frescoed rooms where log fires are ablaze. The house is decorated

‘Luckily, I have never in my life had to pay a woman for sex’ . Berlusconi lives here with his fiancée Francesca Pascale, 28, a former beauty

ExclusivE intErviEw with silvio BErlusconi - Malta Business Review

queen and provincial councillor in the Naples area, who created a support group called Silvio, We Miss You, and ambushed him outside a restaurant in Rome in 2006. Six years later, in 2012, Berlusconi declared their engagement.

Smiling broadly, Berlusconi walks stiffly into the room, and shakes my hand firmly. He radiates self‐assurance. From close up, I can see traces of foundation powder on his face; he has stuck to his habit of wearing make‐up for photo sessions and on television, despite being lampooned for it.

He thanks me for visiting him, offers an early‐ evening aperitivo and agrees heartily when I refuse. He is not simply a well‐rehearsed affable host, but instinctively keen to charm and makes every effort to make me feel comfortable. I ask after his health. “I’m well. I’ve still got the sun in my pocket,” he replies, an expression he famously used to drum into the sales teams of his business empire. “I’m an incurable optimist,” Berlusconi smiles again. At 5ft 4in, he is sharp, alert, but paunchy and slightly breathless after coming down the stairs. He has a full head of hair — the hair thinner on top of his scalp after a transplant a decade ago.

During our meeting he repeatedly denies the charges and reminds me he is appealing the verdicts — he waves me to a chair at an oval table in a wood‐panelled dining room where, he says, he and his party apparatchiks “do all the thinking”. He is accompanied by a long‐ time political aide and his chief press officer.

For the next 90 minutes, Berlusconi fidgets constantly, gesticulating, doodling on a notepad, often closing his eyes as he speaks.

For all the talk of the sun in his pocket, he seems weary. His mood is in turn nostalgic, sad, bitter, angry, bombastic and defiant. Last year a court in Milan sentenced him to seven years in prison for paying for sex with Karima el‐ Mahroug, a Moroccan nightclub dancer better known as Ruby the Heart Stealer, when she was 17, and using his influence to free her from custody after her arrest for alleged theft. The minimum legal age for prostitution in Italy is 18.

Berlusconi and el‐Mahroug both deny having had sex or committing any wrongdoing. Under Italian law, defendants have two possibilities of appeal before a conviction becomes definitive. According to recently released court documents, Berlusconi was the ringmaster who decided when to begin the “‘bunga bunga’ in which female guests worked to satisfy the desires of the defendant, that is to ‘make him feel bodily pleasures’... performing pole dances, striptease, dressing in disguises and fondling each other”. El‐Mahroug testified that women dressed up as nuns, nurses and, in one case, as Barack Obama. She denied ever having sexual relations with Berlusconi and said she did not see him engaged in physical contact with other women at the parties.

Two months after the sex conviction, in August, Berlusconi suffered another blow, this time at the hands of Italy’s Supreme Court. The court upheld a four‐year prison sentence — commuted to one year of community service or house arrest — for tax fraud involving Mediaset, his commercial television network.

His sentence is still under review. He was expelled from the senate and faces a ban on standing for parliament for the next six years.

He vehemently denies the charges.

Berlusconi bursts out that he wants to show us, as he puts it, what we’ve come to see: the ‘bunga‐bunga’ room Berlusconi tells me that the accusations about his private life have caused “so much pain, so many wounds, for me and for my family”. He has in recent months suffered from depression and spent many nights sitting in front of the TV. When I ask him what really went on at his villa, he looks briefly surprised at the question, then launches into a list of his political achievements. None of his undoing, he believes, is about sex or tax fraud — it is all about payback for his political triumphs. He is at his angriest when denouncing prosecutors and judges, whom he describes as politically motivated left‐wingers.

The sprawling yellow villa is Berlusconi’s main home, and this is the first time that a journalist from outside Italy has interviewed him there in more than a decade “I represented, and still represent, the only obstacle to the left’s definitive conquest of power,” he insists. “I’m paying a personal price for that, with a political and judicial vendetta that has been unleashed against me through 150 trials in the last 20 years.” Berlusconi says that his card was marked from the moment he decided to go into politics. In 1994 his first government collapsed when a coalition ally abandoned him following news of a corruption investigation; he was later cleared of the allegations. After returning to power for a fourth time in 2008, he says, he cut taxes and cleared Naples of household rubbish, performing “a miracle”.

Berlusconi has in the past compared himself not only to Jesus Christ, but also Napoleon and Winston Churchill. Such grandstanding has been accompanied by a series of gaffes, such as describing the newly elected President Obama as “young, handsome and even tanned”. He has likened a German MEP to a kapo (guard) in a Nazi concentration camp, and made the sign of the horns — with two

outstretched fingers, denoting a cuckold — over the head of Josep Pique, then Spanish foreign minister, at an EU summit.

These blunders echoed across the globe, but failed to dent his popularity at home — he served as prime minister for nine years in total. By Italian standards, that is quite an achievement. In his last term in office, he claims to have saved the airline Alitalia from French hands, and built new homes for 30,000 victims of an earthquake at L’Aquila in central Italy. “Alas, my popularity went up to 75.3% in late 2009. The leftist judiciary was hugely scared, and the perfect storm was launched,” he says. And then he talks in detail of the allegations that have dogged his career in recent years.

It was, he says, his friend Emilio Fede, a former newsreader on one of his TV channels, who had the idea of having a table of beautiful girls, as Berlusconi puts it. (Fede is appealing against a seven‐year sentence for procuring young women parties.) “I worked all the time, in the evening, on Saturday, on Sunday, it was crazy. It’s clear that I’ve worked so hard in a room surrounded by people from Rome, the politicians.” Fede’s idea suited him. “I liked to sing songs for a bit, to talk about politics, to gossip, talk about soccer, in a very pleasant manner.” His guests included Nicole Minetti, an Anglo‐Italian former dental hygienist who became a regional councillor in his People of Freedom party.

She, in turn, has said she was in love with Berlusconi and is appealing against a five‐year conviction for procuring young women for prostitution. “Given who I was at that time, I earned crazy sums. They asked me for help, which I gave very willingly. I was pleased to be able to help them. It was all help, never money for a sex act, what need was there for that?”

Berlusconi asks.

In an appeal against a seven‐year conviction for procuring young women for prostitution, filed earlier this month, the former showbiz agent Lele Mora described how much an invitation to Berlusconi’s home meant. “Perhaps the greatest of the ambitions” of aspiring film or TV stars, as Mora’s lawyers put it, “was that of meeting Silvio Berlusconi, of being invited to one of his dinners, to enter into that circle of favourites... Berlusconi was, as well as prime minister, the owner of the main Italian TV and film networks.”

Berlusconi’s tone suddenly changes and emotion wells up in his voice. “They did things to these girls which... I don’t know how I can put it... These girls were named everywhere, look them up, and they come out as the prosecutor said, as pros‐ti‐tutes,” slowly articulating each syllable. www.maltabusinessreview.net

29

“Luckily, I’ve never in my life had to pay a woman to have sex,” he insists. He grins broadly and says that unfortunately he had to marry some, which cost him a lot. Last summer, a court ruled that Berlusconi must pay his estranged wife Veronica Lario a monthly sum of £1.2m. (When she filed for divorce in 2009, Lario branded him “a dragon to whom young virgins offer themselves”.) Turning serious again, he says that in the “bunga” case the police staged “a roundup”, barging into the homes of 32 young women. He claims the women, watched by a female officer, were made to undress in the bathroom as their homes were searched and their clothes, bags, shoes and knickers — he stresses the last word — were laid out and photographed. “All their diaries, computers and mobile phones were taken away.

Then they were taken to police headquarters and kept there with no food until 9pm,” he says.

The young women, Berlusconi insists, had not been the only guests at his dinners. Also present were the waiters, musicians, his bodyguards and sometimes his own children, who would drop by.

“They all had mobile phones and they could make a film, or take photographs, or record what was said. But from all these phone taps, the 180,000 phone calls which were monitored, not one bit of evidence of a crime has come out, so the trial is a farce, to ruin my image,” he says.

“These girls have had their lives de‐vas‐ta‐ted, de‐vas‐ta‐ted,” he continues. “They can’t find a proper boyfriend, a proper job, they can’t find someone who will rent them a flat, and they are desperate.” He says that men now routinely go up to the girls, who are notorious through no fault of their own, and ask them for oral sex for 50, saying that’s all they can afford as they’re not Berlusconi.

He says he is appalled that the girls’ reputations have been ruined and that he is giving them each £2,000 a month to help with their living expenses.

He denies that he has been buying their silence.

Berlusconi insists that he cannot explain how an underage girl — Ruby the Heart Stealer — had 30

been among his guests at dinner one evening.

“We didn’t manage to find out how, because no one said they’d brought her along.” He does say, however, that her description of her background made many of his guests feel sorry for her. She said she was Egyptian and that her mother was related to Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president. Her parents had thrown her out because she had embraced the Catholic faith and her father had thrown boiling oil on her.

“She showed us deep injuries,” Berlusconi says, bowing his head and gesturing as if he were parting his hair. Her father has denied treating her in this way.

“She said she was 24, she looked her age and she had a way of speaking that meant no one would have thought she was 17 and a few months. She made friends with some people and so, every so often, I saw her appear here. I never invited her,” Berlusconi says. ‘Today’s Europe doesn’t have a soul. It is Europe of too much bureaucracy and of veiled nationalisms’. One day she showed him a list of hair‐removing laser equipment for a beauty centre “costing 54,000 or 57,000. She told me that if she could buy this equipment she would have a 50% stake in a beauty centre in Milan. She said she would give this money back with the profits. I [was sceptical about] the profits; it was an act of generosity,” he says. “I only felt sorry for the girl...

I didn’t fancy her and I never fancied her... They’ve vilified me in the whole world with this underage business. First, this girl has always said she never had any sex with me. Second, she has always said she was 24. Third, there is no proof, there is nothing which can lead one to think that there was something of the kind. Basta [enough], that’s all there is to it.” Unfortunately for Berlusconi, Italian prosecutors and his political opponents do not feel the same way.

Berlusconi has had ample warning of his fate. It was 20 years ago this month, he recalls, that he told his family and top executives over dinner at this table that he would resign from his television

and publishing companies and enter politics. They all cautioned him against it. He didn’t sleep on the night of the dinner, lying in bed and anxiously staring at the ceiling. His mother was so worried that she asked his chauffeur, who had driven her home, to drive her back to the villa in the early hours. She appeared at the foot of his bed. “I’ll remember this scene all my life,” Berlusconi says, eyes closed. “She said to me: ‘I tell you that you mustn’t do this because it will bring harm to your companies and much, much harm to you.’”

But she told him to go ahead if he felt it was his duty. His critics claim that he entered politics to place himself in a stronger position to fend off possible corruption charges (the so‐called Clean Hands scandal of 1982 had engulfed the political establishment), but he insists he was motivated by a hatred of communism. “When I was 12 I had a teacher who had fled from behind the Iron Curtain. He told us it was the most inhuman and most cruel ideology in history. I was terrified that the Italian Communist Party (PCI) could take power,” he says.

Today’s Europe doesn’t have a soul. It is Europe of too much bureaucracy and of veiled nationalisms

In 1991, after the collapse of the Eastern bloc, the Italian party shifted towards the centre, renaming itself the Democratic Party of the Left. But Berlusconi was convinced it remained a threat. “All the opinion polls showed I was the only one who could save Italy from this danger,” he says. “I didn’t sleep for nights.” Two decades on, the sleepless nights have returned. According to the Italian press, Berlusconi fears that judges in the tax fraud case will reject his request for community service, which could range from

ExclusivE intErviEw with silvio BErlusconi - Malta Business Review

looking after the elderly or the disabled, to helping with housing projects or environmental work. Instead, he could be placed under house arrest (in Rome, to where he recently switched his official residence).

This would severely hamper any election campaigning as he would need permission for all trips, broadcasts or interviews. But he remains defiant. Berlusconi gives a tight smile.

“Look, I’ve had [prostate] cancer, I was never scared. If I have something today it is courage, more than enough of it, luckily for me. So I’m absolutely not scared of these signori [people].

I see them as what they are, I won’t tell you what, but you can imagine.”

He professes to believe that “something will happen”, that he will not be placed under house arrest, or even have to do community service, which he says at his age would entail only meetings every fortnight with a social worker.

Why is he so confident? Because he is “Signor Berlusconi”, he says defiantly. He reels off his achievements, clearly thinking of his legacy and that pink sarcophagus. He will be remembered as Italy’s No 1 entrepreneur; he created jobs for 56,000 people; he gave birth to Italian commercial television; he made the AC Milan football team an international success; he served as prime minister longer than any other Italian.

Before judges decide on community service or house arrest — a ruling that could come as early as April — “something must be done”.

He is hoping that the Italian president, Giorgio Napolitano, will grant him a pardon or that he will have his conviction quashed on appeal. He has also appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. Berlusconi is determined to return to front‐line Italian politics, but current polls credit the centre‐right bloc he leads with 33.7% of the vote, behind the centre‐left of “Italy’s Tony Blair”, the 38‐year‐old Matteo Renzi, at 38.8%. Asked whether he would like to be prime minister for a fifth time — judges permitting — he replies: “We can’t leave the left an empty field.” More than that, it’s a question of duty. “If I take into account the incredible judicial and media siege which has turned me into a continuous target; and, above all, if I compare myself to the other players on the [Italian] stage today, then I have the duty to stay in the ring,” he says.

Oblivious to critics who have written him off as a symbol of a political class with which many Italians are exasperated after years of austerity politics and scandal, Berlusconi insists he is still regarded as an outsider by many voters. “I’m completely outside the Italian establishment, which has always seen me as a foreign body. I’m proud of that, as a citizen, an entrepreneur and a politician. The only people I have to answer to are the Italians. And still today, I’m the only player who can speak to millions of voters who are uncertain [who they want to vote for].”

He speaks warmly of David Cameron, although the prime minister might not entirely reciprocate. “I have a splendid relationship with David, we’ve been at many summits together and I must say we’ve never disagreed on anything, so I have a very good opinion of him,” Berlusconi says. What does he think of Cameron’s promise of a referendum on renegotiating Britain’s EU membership?

Berlusconi frowns slightly.

If I have something today it is courage, more than enough of it, luckily for me.

So I’m absolutely not scared of these signori [people] “We need to be very cautious on referendums, even if they’re an expression of direct democracy. There are so many things which influence public opinion. Some parties and some media take extreme stands, so in each country the problem has to be tackled with lucidity and without prejudices, and I think we have to do this all together,” he says. Berlusconi wants Italy to stay in the euro, but he brands it “a foreign currency” because of the limited powers of the European Central Bank. He wants the ECB, like the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve, to guarantee the public debt of Eurozone countries and print money when necessary. “Germany has to overcome its tremendous fear of inflation, which is very understandable after the Weimar Republic and Hitler,” he says. “Yes, [printing money] will create a bit of inflation, one or two percentage points... but inflation which is that low isn’t a burden for the economy.”

He favours a common foreign policy — “If Obama wants to know what Europe thinks there’s no one for him to call” — and a common defence policy, enthusing improbably that, “One country could have the navy, one the air force and yet another the army corps. We’d reduce our spending by 50% but above all we could be a military power in the world.” For now, he sees friends like Vladimir Putin not at world summits but on private visits. Asked what he admires in Putin, a dacha holiday companion, Berlusconi says his “capacity for decision‐making and for government”, and his “extraordinary geopolitical and geostrategic vision”. Tony Blair, who stayed with Cherie at Berlusconi’s estate on Sardinia’s Emerald Coast, also remains “a friend”, but now the two meet “sometimes during our wanders in Europe, the last time I think was in Israel, we’re still tied by an affectionate friendship”. He apparently harbours no hard feelings towards the Blairs, even though Tony insisted to Cherie he wasn’t

photographed with him when Berlusconi greeted them wearing a bandana after his hair transplant.

Judges have now put paid to Berlusconi’s ‘wanderings; by seizing his passport. ‘What do they think? That I could drop everything and flee?’ With thinly controlled fury, he flicks his pen aside and it hits the tablecloth. Berlusconi may end up in politics but not in parliament, if he fails to overturn his ban on standing for office. Should he be sidelined, he is considering handing over the leadership of Forza Italia to his eldest daughter Marina, 47, head of both the Fininvest holding company and the Mondadori publishing house.

Asked whether Marina, or his younger daughter, Barbara, 30, a director of the AC Milan football team, could succeed him, Berlusconi replies: “I’m lucky to have five children who are all exceptional. I’m proud of each of them. The future belongs to them. I only hope they will never have to suffer a shameful and huge persecution as I have.”

Today, Berlusconi spends most of his time in Villa San Martino, making only occasional trips to Rome and even rarer trips to his Sardinian estate. He says he finds solace in his fiancée, Francesca Pascale. “Francesca loves me, it is a real and strong relationship. In my lifetime I’ve learnt to recognise when others are sincere in their thoughts and their feelings. This gives me serenity and energy,” he says. Later, in a break during the photoshoot, Berlusconi calls for a tablet and flicks through photographs of his restoration of the nearby 18th‐century Villa Gernetto, where he is hoping to launch an International University of Liberty for students seeking a career in politics.

He has promised that visiting lecturers will include Vladimir Putin, Tony Blair, George W Bush and Bill Clinton. Berlusconi suddenly breaks into a big smile, and bursts out that he wants to show us, as he puts it, what we’ve come to see: the “bunga‐ bunga” room.

He leads the way through a lounge and into a dark passage. Whatever lies ahead is in complete darkness as he searches for a switch. He flicks on the light, revealing a vast banqueting hall with colossal paintings of ancient Roman ruins, chandeliers and a very long, white‐clad table.

Berlusconi, still grinning, points to an oil painting resting on an easel in a corner. He says it’s the Mona Lisa, adding that the prosecutors accused him of stripping her. It isn’t her, of course, it’s an ancient portrait of a bare‐breasted woman. A less flamboyant or confident politician would think twice about making such off‐colour remarks, but Berlusconi can’t stop himself. Despite all that has befallen him, he still manages a laugh. Perhaps he does still have the sun in his pocket. It may just take a little while to rise again. MBR CREDIT: John Follain / The Sunday Times Magazine / The Interview People www.maltabusinessreview.net

31

Tax News - Malta Business Review

MalTa ResideNcy Rules: chaNges iN The Tax sysTeM

by Antoinette Scerri Tax advisory services manager at Nexia BT In August 2014, the Minister of Finance enacted subsidiary legislation that excludes individuals falling under the definition of Permanent Residents of Malta and Long-term residents from benefiting from the remittance basis of taxation.

The new rules state that notwithstanding the provisions of the Income Tax Act, individuals falling under the definition of ‘permanent resident’ and ‘long-term resident’ shall be taxable on any income accruing in or derived from Malta or elsewhere, and whether received in Malta or not.

Applicable to

GRP Third Country Nationals

RPR EU, EEA or Swiss national *

MRP EU, EEA or Swiss national, who is not in an employment relationship *

Purchase of Property

€275,000 (€220,000)

€275,000 (€220,000)

€275,000 (€220,000)

€9,600 (€8,750)

€9,600 (€8,750)

€9,600 (€8,750)

Minimum Tax Payable

€ 15,000

€ 15,000

€7,500 + €500 per dependant **

Non-refundable application fee

€ 6,000

€ 6,000

€ 2,500

For the purpose of the above, the term “permanent resident of Malta” is defined as: a.

b.

a person who has right of permanent residence in terms of article 6 and is in possession of a permanent residence certificate issued in terms of article 7 of the Free Movement of European Union Nationals and their Family Members Order; or a person who applies for right of permanent residence in terms of article 6 of the Free Movement of European Union Nationals and their Family Members Order;

Lease of Property

The term “long-term resident” is defined as follows: a.

a person who has long-term resident status in terms of the Status of Long-term Residents (Third Country Nationals) Regulations;

b.

a person who applies for long-term resident status under the Status of Long-term Residents (Third Country Nationals) Regulations;

The above definitions imply that persons in possession of permanent residency, or persons who apply for a permanent residence certificate, will not be entitled to fall under the remittance basis of taxation but will instead be taxed on a worldwide basis.

Currently Malta also offers a number of specific Programmes aimed at attracting high net worth individuals (HNWI) to reside and/or retire in Malta. Beneficiaries under these Programmes may benefit from a 15% tax rate on foreign source income received in Malta. The following are the main features of these residency programmes.

Figures in brackets refer to property situated in Gozo or in the South of Malta * Excluding Maltese Nationals ** 75% of the beneficiary’s total income must constitute a pension, all of which must be received in Malta.

Global Residence Programme Rules (“GRP”) Residence Programme Rules (“RPR”) Malta Retirement Programme Rules (“MRP”) This material has been prepared by professionals at Nexia BT. It is intended as a general guide only, and its application to specific situations will depend on the particular circumstances involved. This information should not be relied upon as a substitute for such advice. MBR

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33

Summer is over

a r u g F .

C .

F t a y t r a p f f a t s F PK

PKF are proud to announce their sponsorship of Fgura Football club which was founded in 1971. It is the oldest sporting organisation in the locality of Fgura and is the only one which was inaugurated by UEFA President Michel Platini in 2012 . Mr. Platini also officially launched the new website of the club that proved to be a great success throughout the rest of the football season. The club was recently promoted to first division and continues to attract new supporters through the Futsal squad, women’s team and other social activities that take place on a monthly basis. Thanks to their forward-looking mentality, plans for the future expansion are already in process and the club hopes to advance in the competitions which start this month.

35, Mannarino Road, Birkirkara, BKR 9080, Malta info@pkfmalta.com | Tel: (+356) 21 484373 | www.pkfmalta.com or Block 12, Office 2/1 Tigne Place Tigne Street, Sliema SLM 3137, Malta Email: info@tunemalta.com | Tel: (+356) 2133 5715 | www.tunemalta.com

EuropEan affairs - Malta Business Review

Jobs, Growth & CompEtitivEnEss on top of thE Eu’s aGEnda

Parliamentary Secretary Dr Ian Borg at the EU meeting

There was unanimous agreement amongst Ministers responsible for European Affairs that although all priority areas identified in the EU’s blueprint ‘Strategic Agenda for The Union in Times of Change’ are clearly of key importance; the priority of jobs, growth and competitiveness deserves prime focus in the coming months.

The General affairs Council is currently debating new working methods to make the EU system more efficient, streamlined and one that enables the EU to react to issues quicker. Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg attended the meeting being held in Milan. He also added that immediate and focused monitoring of actions is also warranted with regards to freedom, security and justice so that the strategic guidelines adopted recently by Heads of State are implemented.

The EU Ministers discussed how best to address the apparent disillusionment vis-à-vis the European project. Parliamentary Secretary Borg said the message emanating from the recent elections of the European Parliament cannot be ignored. Citizens are concerned and the EU system and its institutions have to win back citizens’ support. Ministers agreed on the need of working towards greater transparency. In this regard Dr. Borg stressed on the importance of greater communication and engagement with European citizens and communicating results to them. Dr. Borg also highlighted the principle of subsidiary and the role of national parliaments. Dr. Borg stated that it is important for the EU system to be more engaged with national parliaments and that available mechanisms such as the yellow and orange cards should not be dismissed – but strengthened.

Parliamentary Secretary Borg supported the setting up of a Friends of the Presidency (FoP) group to look at the functioning of the system with the objective of identifying existing elements in the Treaty that are currently not being used to the full - but which if activated, would contribute to a better functioning of the EU system. Dr. Borg stressed that this reflective exercise needs to be focused and based on a clear results-oriented mandate. MBR EDITOR’S NOTE The May 2014 European elections opened up a new legislative cycle. This moment of political renewal came precisely as EU countries emerge from years of economic crisis and as public disenchantment with politics has grown. It is the right time to set out what we want the Union to focus on and how we want it to function. The European Council agreed on five overarching priorities which will guide the work of the European Union over the next five years: stronger economies with more jobs; societies enabled to empower and protect; a secure energy and climate future; a trusted area of fundamental freedoms; effective joint action in the world.

www.maltabusinessreview.net

35

Malta Business Review - BanKing

EconomiEs adopting RmB tRadE hold advantagE - HSBC Commercial Banking -

As the notion of the Asian Century starts to become a reality, economies that conduct business in renminbi (RMB) – the Chinese currency – hold the advantage for their exporters, according to a recent HSBC Commercial Banking survey.

The 11-market survey notes that whilst two-thirds of companies in mainland China and Hong Kong said foreign firms doing business with China gain financial and relationship advantages from using RMB, awareness of these potential benefits varies widely overseas.

Overall, 59% of decision-makers surveyed said they plan to increase their cross-border activity with mainland China over the next 12 months, rising to 86% in the UK, 73% in the UAE and 63% in France. At the same time, only 22% said their company currently settles business in RMB.

for companies doing business internationally. The benefits for corporates using RMB include improving working capital, simplifying processes and mitigating payment risks.”

The growing use of China’s currency worldwide is also generating capital investment and financing opportunities

HSBC Malta’s Head of Commercial Banking Michel Cordina explains: “The findings confirm the growing importance of RMB as a world currency. As part of HSBC Group, HSBC Bank Malta, which is the only bank in Malta offering Direct Trade Settlement in RMB, is well positioned to assist its customers wanting to carry out transactions in RMB as well as facilitate trade through this currency, as part of our ongoing Malta Trade for Growth initiative.”

Other highlights of the survey note interesting facts: RMB adaptability outside of China is the highest in France (26%) and Germany (23%) respectively; that of all the companies using the RMB to settle cross-border business today, 59% expect to use it more over the next 12 months; and that 32% of companies that don’t use the RMB already expect to do so in the future.

The Head of Global Banking and Markets for HSBC Malta James Woodeson said: “The growing use of China’s currency worldwide is also generating capital investment and financing opportunities

The survey also notes that the main reasons for using the RMB include requests from trading partners, reducing FX risk, convenience, winning new business and gaining better pricing. MBR

36

GDP - Malta Business Review

The Minister for Finance Prof. Edward Scicluna notes with satisfaction the Gross Domestic Product growth figures published by NSO which show that Malta ranks among the top-performing countries in the Eurozone and the European Union on GDP growth.

Figures published by the National Statistics office on Wednesday 27th August 2014 show that in the second quarter of 2014, economic growth remained strong, increasing by 2.9 per cent when compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. For the first half of this year, the Maltese economy grew by 3.4 per cent.

In nominal terms GDP grew by 4.2 per cent. This nominal growth is expected to continue impacting favourably Malta’s public finances especially its debt and deficit positions.

Compared with figures published as part of Eurostat’s Flash Estimate for the second quarter of 2014 on 14th August 2014, Malta ranks as the 6th top-performing country out of the 28 European Member States, and the second top-performing country (after Latvia) out of Euro Area countries.

“This successful and encouraging rate of economic growth was the result of considerable increases in private consumption and investment,” Prof.

Scicluna noted.

During the second quarter of this year, total compensation of employees increased

by €52.4 million. As a result there was an annual increase in compensation per employee of 4.5 per cent. There was also a considerable increase in profits and operating surpluses of businesses of €13.2 million during the same period.

This successful and encouraging rate of economic growth was the result of considerable increases in private consumption and investment For the first half of this year, compensation of employees increased by €95.6 million with the most notable increases recorded in the construction; professional, scientific and technical activities; and wholesale and retail trade, sectors. During the same period, profits and operating surpluses of businesses increased by €33.5 million.

In the second quarter of 2014, total gross value added increased by 4.1 per cent when compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The majority

of industries registered increases in gross value added with the most robust increases recorded in the professional, scientific and technical activities (9.2 per cent). Other notable increases were registered in arts and entertainment and recreation (6.7 per cent); wholesale and retail trade (6.1 per cent); and information and communication (4.6 per cent).

It is to be highlighted that the turnaround in the construction sector is being sustained as evidenced by the increase in the gross value added in both the construction sector by 3.2 per cent and real estate activities by 1.6 per cent.

Finance Minister Prof. Edward Scicluna also notes with satisfaction the consistent increase, quarter after quarter, in both the gross value added and the compensation of employees in the wholesale and retail trade sector.

“The developments in the second quarter of 2014 confirm that the strong performance registered during the first months of this year is being sustained. For the economy they translate into more jobs and higher incomes,” Prof. Scicluna noted. MBR www.maltabusinessreview.net

37

ProjeCt ManageMent - Malta Business Review

Managing ConfliCt while Managing ProjeCts

by Vince Magri

A project is any type of work which has a start and a finish, where objectives and results are identified at the very start of the process.

Objectives are usually very broad in the beginning of the project management process and these are then refined and developed further, leading to the defined expected results and outcomes.

There are various parties involved in project management. The Client is usually the one who starts it all, but who usually does not have the time, resources, or professional knowledge to carry it out on his own. The

Client hence starts to acquire services from professionals. These include financial persons, designers, contractors, and lawyers among others. The first professional that needs to be engaged, however, should be the Project Manager. The choice of the Project Manager would be one of the most important decisions that the Client will make, since if the wrong person is chosen, then all aspects of the project will be affected. The Project Manager is the central figure that gels it all together through his strategic vision and will need to

guide and advise the Client, coordinate with and facilitate collaboration between all the other professionals involved in the project, and liaise with service providers and/or contractors to make sure that they deliver the project at the expected quality, within established budgets and on time.

Both the input of the various people and also the processes involved need to be intertwined together in time, and need to be coordinated effectively. If this is not done, the risk of not attaining the desired results is substantially increased. www.maltabusinessreview.net

39

continues on pg 41

roject management is a complex activity. It is one of the most stressful activities that one can engage in since it is all about conflict resolution and managing change to deliver results. Every project starts from one person’s idea, but very rapidly develops through the input of a vast array of people from different backgrounds.

continued from pg 39

project management - Malta Business Review

The project manager is that person who adopts the project, coordinates between all stakeholders, manages the process and leads it to eventual completion.

The project itself can vary in complexity, from the simplest task to the most complicated mission. The larger the complexity, the more the need for a project management team, which for very large projects, usually assumes the size of a temporary organisation in itself. The larger the complexity, the more is the chance of having situations of conflict.

Conflict occurs due to various reasons but the main cause would definitely be lack of teamwork - different persons pulling different ends of the same rope.

This can potentially occur at all levels, both due to different agendas and due to misunderstandings.

It is therefore important that goal alignment is set at the very beginning and continues throughout the project. The major challenge here is to align financial expectations, since in many instances, one person’s

profit usually means another person’s loss within the same team. For example, lack of clarity of the scope of works for contractors involved in the project will definitely lead to conflict, either between contractors or else with the Client.

Procedures need to be put in place which makes it easier to resolve conflict

Secondly, every effort needs to be made to minimise instances of miscommunication.

This relates to adopted procedures, formal document exchange and to verbal communications. Procedures need to be put in place which makes it easier to resolve conflict. The right procedures need to facilitate decision taking, information exchange and traceability.

A formal document exchange system needs to be established as part of this

process. This will have precedence over ad hoc communication which often leads to subjective interpretation and very expensive litigation. This is extremely important so that when conflicting situations arise, these could be easily addressed.

The best method towards conflict resolution is therefore to be strategic in approach but detailed in implementation.

It is important to have the continuous awareness that conflict needs to be properly managed, failing which one risks paying a heavy price. This awareness has to be present throughout the life cycle of the project. Of critical importance are the initial stages of any project. This means that all actions and decisions taken be based on sound planning which tries to clarify things at the start rather than at a later stage. Potential situations of conflict are hence identified and adequately addressed early on in the process.

Basic project management involves three very important variables. These three variables relate to quality, time and resources (financial and other), and are all essential in satisfying and attaining the expected results. All are also potential conflict generators, since each one of them affects the other two. The trick is to be realistic on all fronts, especially as related to time for project completion and resources for attaining this. Don’t be fooled into getting a “good deal” in the short term which is obviously unrealistic.

Unrealistic expectations lead to conflicts, and that is usually a heavier price to pay whether you are the Client, a Service Provider or a Contractor. MBR

EDITOR’S NOTE Perit VINCENT MAGRI has studied at the University of Malta, the University of Newcastleupon-Tyne and the Maastricht School of Management. He has been involved in the management of projects for the past 24 years and has worked in planning, management, construction, refurbishment and EU projects both locally and abroad. He is currently Client Representative and Project Manager for the new Oncology Centre project at Msida.

www.maltabusinessreview.net

41

Malta Business Review - Education

ovEr 20 ParticiPants in first franklin covEy ProgrammEs Two local programmes of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Signature 4.0 have attracted over 20 participants since the latest edition was launched in Europe last April.

One open programme and one in-house programme ensured that a wide cross-section of people was exposed to these timeless principles, receiving insights into making their personal and professional lives more effective.

First launched by the late Dr Stephen Covey in 1985, the 7 Habits content has gone through three major iterations, although the principles and paradigms have remained unchanged.

Earlier this year the 7 Habits programme underwent the most extensive product development effort that FranklinCovey Co. has ever attempted.

It included the latest feedback from FC clients and partners around the world. “Part of the research effort involved searching for companies in various countries that had transformed themselves using the 7 Habits,” Sean Covey, Executive Vice President, Global Solutions and Partnerships at FranklinCovey Co. said. The company then went on to discover specific practices and methodologies those companies used in their implementation of

the 7 Habits. Prototype development and beta testing in various locations globally followed until the final solution was established.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Signature 4.0 is now an essential foundation for a great culture, be it within an organisation, a team of people working together or a single individual and the family. The focus has now turned to living the 7 Habits through several tools, including a smartphone app that can be downloaded to iPhones and Android devices, and handy practice cards.

New content has also been developed in the form of a companion programme, Leader Implementation: Coaching Your Team to Higher Performance, and a redesigned 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Foundations. The first is designed for leaders and managers at all levels of the organisation in a process that teaches and equips leaders on how to coach their teams to higher performance and how to sustain and institutionalise the 7 Habits within their teams. The second spreads the culture of

the 7 Habits throughout the organisation.

Commenting on the latest 7 Habits programmes delivered in Malta, Malcolm J Naudi, Managing Director of FranklinCovey Malta Ltd, said: “We have received excellent feedback from the participants and this makes us even more convinced that the content has great potential for further dissemination locally. 7 Habits 4.0 is a great leap forward.

While preserving the soul and keeping the timeless practices that Dr Stephen R. Covey captured so brilliantly in his book, we now have added timely practices and a general updating of the components to live in the second decade of the millennium.”

All the content of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Signature 4.0 is based on best practices from leading organisations around the world that have made it the foundation of their high performance cultures. MBR

SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS WITHOUT BORDERS. As a subsidary of BAWAG P.S.K. Group, one of the biggest banks in Austria, BAWAG Malta Bank Limited is a competent financial partner to lead you on the right course in international business.

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04.09.14 09:54

opInIon - Malta Business Review

BD: It’s not rocket scIence, It’s people scIence

by Bill Scheessele

What’s so hard about business development? … It’s not rocket science

e have heard this phrase repeated many times by professionals in technical industries, usually by leaders who are experienced in management, finance, and operations, but not in developing business. So, it is understandable they may not be aware of the subtler aspects of the business development process.

While it is true that BD may not be rocket science, it isn’t intuitive either. After many years’ study of all aspects of BD and interviewing numerous successful BD Professionals, we have discovered that BD can be more complex than many people imagine.

Effective BD requires technical knowledge, yes, but also an understanding of behavioral psychology, or “people science”.

Successful BD practitioners understand what motivates customers and why they make purchasing decisions.

Think that good mechanics for developing business can make up for lack of people knowledge? Time and again, we’ve discovered that even if you follow your tried and true process perfectly, the absence of an understanding of the personal dynamics surrounding customer engagement can and will affect the success of your efforts.

Effective BD professionals understand not only what is going on in the prospect’s mind, but also what’s going on in his or her own mind. This is easier said than done.

Unlike its cousin, transactional sales, which entails short-term focus on features and

benefits, BD requires developing a longterm, person-to-person relationship built upon trust. Technical degrees may be required for research and development, but an understanding of behavioral psychology is the backbone of BD and revenue growth.

Many technical sales professionals choose to ignore the people science side of BD, but that makes achieving their goals much more difficult – if not impossible.

Students of behavioral psychology find that understanding themselves and others has a profound effect upon their career.

Technically trained professionals (e.g., scientists and engineers) are often surprised to find that obtaining buy-in for initiatives within organisations, with teams, and even personal interactions involves the same thinking and skills as those for developing business.

Anyone who has acted in a BD role even a short time knows that it can be tough.

It is not easy to stay confident and keep a positive attitude in the face of frequent rejection. When you take rejection personally, it can shake your confidence and you will appear desperate. Prospects can smell desperation – and desperation destroys their trust.

A strong understanding of behavioral psychology will help you stay confident through the process. This understanding includes not only the prospect’s behavior, but also your own.

• • •

Are there certain things that you can do to build trust?

How do salesmen destroy trust?

How has your technical training impacted your ability to appear trustworthy?

For example, we know from behavioral psychology that the more the prospect thinks you know about them, the more likely they are to trust you. If that is the case, why do technical professionals in the BD role feel compelled to tell their prospects about themselves?

In our experience working with technical professionals, we have found that people knowledge may be the most critical BD knowledge of all. Yet the psychology of BD is the least understood and least appreciated part of the process. For technical professionals, the soft stuff truly is the hard stuff, but it is also the most important stuff.

Ignore it at your peril.

Courtesy: Washington Technology

EDITOR’S NOTE Bill Scheessele is CEO of MBDi, a business development professional services firm. He leads a team of government contracting business growth experts.

Learn more about MBDi and their revenue growth resources at http://www.mbdi.com.

www.maltabusinessreview.net

43

EntrEprEnEurship -A LifE ChAnging ExpEriEnCE (Part 1)

by Michelle Gialanze and Louis Naudi Entrepreneurs not Government are society’s real wealth creators and, as businesses become more efficient, they require fewer employees, so any growth in job opportunities will come from a more entrepreneurial economy. Developing and supporting entrepreneurship to succeed in Malta is an important part of its future prosperity and a force for positive change in society.

ntrepreneurial spirit is characterized by innovation and risk-taking, an essential part of a nation’s ability to succeed in an ever changing and increasingly competitive global marketplace. It is the capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a business venture, sourcing and organizing the required resources, while taking both the risks and rewards associated with the venture.

“Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity beyond resources controlled” according to Howard Stevenson founder of entrepreneurship as an academic field, a leading expert on entrepreneurship studies at Harvard business School.

Pursuit implies a singular, relentless focus according to Tom Eisenmann, Howard Stevenson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard. He further argues that “Entrepreneurs often perceive a short window of opportunity.

They need to show tangible progress to attract resources, and the mere passage of time consumes limited cash balances.

Consequently, entrepreneurs have a sense of urgency that is seldom seen in established companies, where any opportunity is part of a portfolio and resources are more readily available” “Opportunity” implies an offering that is novel in one or more of four ways. The opportunity may entail: 1) pioneering a truly innovative product; 2) devising a new business model; 3) creating a better or cheaper version of an existing product; or 4) targeting an existing product to new sets of customers. These opportunity types are not mutually exclusive and the above is not the collectively exhaustive set of opportunities available to organizations.

“Beyond resources controlled” implies resource constraints.

At a new venture’s outset, its founders control only their own human, social, and financial capital. Many entrepreneurs keep expenditures to a bare minimum while investing only their own time and, as necessary, their personal funds.

In some cases, this is adequate to bring a new venture to the point where it becomes self-sustaining from internally generated cash flow. With most high-potential ventures, 44

EntrEprEnEurship - Malta Business Review

however, founders must mobilize more resources than they control personally: the venture eventually will require production facilities, distribution channels, working capital, and so forth.

Because they are pursuing a novel opportunity while lacking access to required resources, entrepreneurs face considerable risk, which comes in four main types. Demand risk relates to prospective customers’ willingness to adopt the solution envisioned by the entrepreneur. Technology risk is high when engineering or scientific breakthroughs are required to bring a solution to fruition. Execution risk relates to the entrepreneur’s ability to attract employees and partners who can implement the venture’s plans. Financing risk relates to whether external capital will be available on reasonable terms. The entrepreneur’s task is to manage this uncertainty, while recognizing that certain risks cannot be influenced by their actions.

Entrepreneurs face a dilemma. On the one hand, it can be difficult to reduce risk without resources. On the other hand, it can be difficult to persuade resource owners to commit to a venture when risk is still high. Entrepreneurs employ four tactics in coping with this: ·

Lean experimentation allows them to resolve risks quickly and with limited resource expenditure, by relying on a “minimum viable product,” that is, the smallest possible set of activities required to rigorously test a business model hypothesis. (discussed further on under business planning process)

·

Staged investing allows entrepreneurs to address risks sequentially, expending only the resources required to meet a given milestone–before committing the resources needed to achieve the next milestone.

·

Partnering allows entrepreneurs to leverage another organization’s resources and thereby shifts risks to parties better able/more willing to bear them. In a variation of this tactic, entrepreneurs rent resources to keep costs variable and to avoid the big fixed outlays associated with resource ownership.

·

“Storytelling” by entrepreneurs–conjuring a vision of a better world that could be brought about by their venture– can encourage resource owners to downplay risks and in the process commit more resources than they would if they had not been inspired.

Stevenson sees entrepreneurship as “a distinctive approach to managing rather than a specific stage in an organization’s life cycle (i.e., startup), a specific role for an individual (i.e., founder), or a constellation of personality attributes (e.g., predisposition for risk taking; preference for independence”.

Secondly, the definition provides a guidepost for entrepreneurial action, pointing to tactics entrepreneurs can take to manage risk and mobilize resources. However, the most obvious example of entrepreneurship is the starting of new businesses. New businesses are an important source of employment and those who have an idea at the back of their minds, should be encouraged to take the next step in turning it into a business or social enterprise.

Although there is nothing like experience when it comes to starting a business and if we are to build a culture of enterprise and entrepreneurship in Malta, we need to start young. Young Enterprise in Malta is an example of what can be done as is the work being developed by the University of Malta & MCAST in developing entrepreneurship, knowledge transfer and incubation units.

In the UK, for example, initiatives directed towards young people are starting to play a part by people aged between 16 and 29, up from 4.00pc in 2002 to almost 8% in 2011. ( source RBS) Analysis by the Royal Bank of Scotland shows that entrepreneurship educators spend too much time on technical skills such as business plan writing and financial forecasting; students should be encouraged to spend more time in the marketplace, engaging with potential customers on the issues they are facing perhaps in work placements.

Entrepreneurship educators spend too much time on technical skills such as business plan writing and financial forecasting; students should be encouraged to spend more time in the marketplace

When it comes to skills, however, class-based training in college or university has a stronger effect than work placements. So while there is a growing ‘enterprise education support industry, one needs to ensure that it is more intensively focused on those aspects of the entrepreneurial process that will provide the best outcomes for young people.

Individuals aged between 25-44 display the highest levels of entrepreneurial activity and young people have a more favourable attitude towards entrepreneurship than older people.

However, evidence from the Uk also shows that only one in three of those start-ups survive 3 years and 90pc fail to make it to their tenth. Entrepreneurs, in any economy still face a struggle to develop and sustain their businesses in a fast-growing economy.

The optimism of young people about their desire to set up a new business is not reflected in the numbers who actually go on and do so. Indeed, many who start, abandon within 12 months and this is in stark contrast to those aged over 30 years of age.

Young people in the UK tend to set up new businesses in certain sectors: for example retail and business services constitute 41% of sector choices of young persons. Whether they are running their own business or not, they indicate that finance and lack of skills/ knowledge are their biggest challenges in the start-up process. MBR EDITOR’S NOTE

Louis Naudi is an Honorary Professor who spent over 30 years of his business life working in SMEs in the Uk., observing their behaviour and also in designing, developing and implementing customer led business support processes for the Department of Trade and Industry. He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing in Malta.

Dr Michelle Gialanze has extensive experience within the field of education both locally and internationally. Her professional studies have included the way people change their practices when taking on board new skills.

She is a consultant in education. She has been instrumental in the recent setting up of MCAST’s Entrepreneurship Centre. www.maltabusinessreview.net

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Malta Business Review - Green ManaGeMent

picture of the current state of the building, what are the priority areas to tackle, and what kind of technologies and solutions must be implemented, and to what extent.

In addition, soft implementations such as Green Management and Procurement, Environmental ISO practices, and Training, can amplify the effects of technologies and solution, often at a minimal capital outlay.

sustainable solutions for You

by Ing. Matthew Spiteri

In a world with escalating fuel prices and depletion of non-renewable fuel resources, our constant drive is to find more environmentally friendly, sustainable, and above all, cost-effective energy efficient technologies. Companies and homes alike strive to seek new ways of reducing their energy footprint, compelled by the positive effect such measures tend to have on the running cost of the building or organisation.

While most of the current sustainable solutions and green technologies are positive in themselves, the priority and magnitude of implementation of such technologies is highly critical in achieving the maximum potential, and consequently the best return on investment on such systems.

Well before implementing any solution, it is highly recommended to perform an Energy Audit of the building, acting as a Gap Analysis exercise. Such audits give a clear

Altern Limited offers expert advice, specifically tailored to the said organisation, aiding it to apply different sustainable solutions and technologies in the most effective and financially sustainable manner. Through its years of experience, Altern acts as the informed partner, aiding the organisation in becoming more environmentally sustainable, whilst implementing cost effective solutions.

Altern today has implemented countless numbers of Energy Audits both locally and abroad, implemented industrial scale Photovoltaic projects, and designed and built LED lighting, specifically manufactured for the local market. MBR +356 2099 6465 - info@altern.com.mt www.altern.com.mt

eY Malta to launch its quarterlY

econoMic update series

EY Malta, supported by the Ministry for Finance and the University of Malta, is launching its first in a series of events relating to EY’s Forecasts on the Eurozone and the Maltese economy. This series, to be held on a quarterly basis, will provide a snapshot of the EY Eurozone and a Malta Forecast, followed by a debate amongst leading economists on a selection of latest local economic issues.

The EY Eurozone Forecast initiative is a quarterly publication on developments across the Eurozone and the 18 individual member states, including Malta. The macroeconomic forecasting is undertaken by Oxford Economics, a leading economics consultancy firm specialising in global forecasting and quantitative analysis for business and government. Oxford Economics was founded in 1981 as a commercial venture with Oxford University’s Business College. The Forecasts use the ECB model and governmental statistics to offer insight into the issues that affect the region’s governments and businesses.

The first event will take place on Friday, 26 September 2014, at The Westin Dragonara 46

Resort, St. Julian’s. The key guest speaker will be Mr. Tom Rogers, Senior Economist at Oxford Economics. The event will be opened

by Hon Prof. Edward Scicluna, Minister for Finance. Representatives from the Ministry for Finance, the Central Bank of Malta, University of Malta, Bank of Valletta plc, the Employment and Training Corporation, the Opposition Party, and EY will also participate in the panel discussion.

forum to discuss EY’s long-running forecast initiatives and to debate key national issues on a regular basis.”

Chris Meilak, economist and Leader of the EY Malta Economic Advisory sub-service line: “We are very excited about this series of economics-related events which will bring together international speakers and Malta’s leading economists. It will be an additional

The event will run from 08:30 till noon.

Participation is free of charge and registration is on a first come first served basis. To register interested parties are kindly asked to contact Alison Whitehead on (+356) 2134 2134 or alison.whitehead@mt.ey.com by 22 September.

Ronald Attard, Country Managing Partner of EY Malta, highlights that “as one of the leading and fastest growing firms in Malta offering assurance, tax and advisory services to local and global clients, EY Malta has a significant role to play in stimulating and contributing to the local debate scenario.” MBR

anniVerSary - Malta Business Review

MSV Life ceLebrateS 20 yearS of SucceSS MSV Life this year marks 20 years of leading success in providing life insurance, protection, long-term savings and retirement planning. MSV Life is the largest life insurance company in Malta with total assets of over €1.4 billion and no fewer than 84,000 policyholders.

SV Life was initially established in September 1994 as Middlesea Valletta Life Assurance Company Limited between three partners Middlesea Insurance p.l.c. (51%), Bank of Valletta p.l.c. (39%) and Munich RE (10%). In September 2005, Bank of Valletta acquired from Munich RE its 10% shareholding in the company. Bank of Valletta also acquired a further 1% holding in the company from Middlesea Insurance p.l.c. Middlesea Valletta Life Assurance Company Limited changed its name to MSV Life p.l.c. in November 2010.

MSV Life is today jointly owned by Bank of Valletta p.l.c. and Middlesea Insurance p.l.c., Malta’s leading non-life insurance provider and a subsidiary of the MAPFRE Group.

MSV Life’s core range of products, rank amongst the highest in the market in terms of quality, performance and price. MSV Life is committed to provide the highest standards of service to its customers, policyholders and intermediaries and to focus on product innovation to fulfil the evolving demands of its customers.

David G. Curmi, MSV Life’s CEO explained “our success and reputation depends not only on the quality of our products and client service but also on the manner in which we conduct our business. MSV’s core values are honesty, integrity, security, high ethical standards, confidence and people development.”

Mr. Curmi added “our average client relationship is between 15 and 20 years, we would not be able to achieve that if

we did not provide an exceptional level of service and continually develop products which directly meet the needs of the consumer. We sell long term policies therefore we need to earn the lifetime loyalty of all our customers. We do not just want to sell a policy or a service we want to sell an experience.”

MSV Life was the first Maltese insurance company to launch a “Customer Charter – Treating Customers Fairly” which outlines MSV Life’s key service commitments to its customers and demonstrates the importance which MSV Life gives to its customers.

Our success and reputation depends not only on the quality of our products and client service but also on the manner in which we conduct our business MSV Life believes that its Corporate Social Responsibility Policy is an integral part of its business philosophy which puts the customer first, values its employees, seeks excellence in its operations and contributes to make the community and society at large better places in which to live, work and grow. MSV Life has always felt that it had a duty to be engaged, even though in a relatively modest way, in making a contribution to the benefit of society of which it forms part. Since its

inception in 1994, MSV Life has regularly extended a helping hand to a number of NGOs and other institutions engaged in initiatives and activities in such areas as charity, rehabilitation, natural heritage, culture, arts, sports and the environment, all of which add value to and promote the well-being of the society and community in which it operates.

MSV takes particular pride in having been a strong believer in and promoter of equal opportunity employment and has consistently employed persons with disability through a collaborative scheme with Inspire. This scheme provides for the secondment to MSV Life of a number of persons with developmental disabilities, assisted by two trained Facilitators.

MSV Life has been a success since its establishment and is firmly recognized as a customer driven organization, which places its customers at the forefront of its mission. MSV boasts of a strong reputation in the market with several years of experience, professionalism and a highly qualified workforce.

MSV Life is authorised by the Malta Financial Services Authority to carry on long term business under the Insurance Business Act 1998. MBR

www.maltabusinessreview.net

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Malta Business Review - european researCh CounCil

Two Fields Medals 2014 awarded To erC laureaTes

The 2014 Fields Medals were awarded today to four outstanding mathematicians, of whom two are grantees of the European Research Council (ERC): Prof. Artur Avila (Brazil-France), an ERC Starting grant holder since 2010, and Prof. Martin Hairer (Austria) has been selected for funding under an ERC Consolidator grant in 2013. They received the prize respectively for their work on dynamical systems and probability, and on stochastic analysis.

The other two laureates are Prof. Manjul Barghava (Canada-US) and Prof. Maryam Mirzakhani (Iran). The Medals were announced at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) taking place from 13 – 21 August in Seoul, South Korea.

On the occasion of the announcement, ERC President Prof. JeanPierre Bourguignon, a mathematician himself, said: “On behalf of the ERC Scientific Council, I would like to congratulate warmly all four Fields Medallists for their outstanding contributions to the field of mathematics. My special congratulations go to Artur Avila and Martin Hairer, who are both brilliant scientists supported by the ERC. We are happy to see that their remarkable talent in the endless frontiers of science has been recognised. The Fields Medals awarded today are also a sign that the ERC continues to identity and fund the most promising researchers across Europe; this is true not only in mathematics but in all scientific disciplines.”

EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, said: “I would like to congratulate the four laureates of the Fields Medal announced today. The Fields Medal, the highest international distinction for young mathematicians, is a well-deserved honour for hardworking and creative young researchers who push the boundaries of knowledge. Today’s award recognises the achievements of two Europe-based mathematicians – Artur Avila and Martin Hairer – who are supported by the European Research Council. This is one more 50

sign that the ERC, which supports excellent science through competitive funding under Horizon 2020, has become a reference in the EU’s quest for high-quality research and innovation.”

The Fields Medals are awarded by the International Mathematical Union (IMU) once every four years to up to four mathematicians under the age of 40. The Prize recognises and rewards young mathematicians who have made major contributions to the field of mathematics and who hold promises for future achievements. MBR ERC Press Contacts Magda Kufrej, Tel: +32 229 87930, erc-press@ec.europa.eu Maud Scelo, erc-press@ec.europa.eu

BACKGROUND Set up in 2007 by the EU, the European Research Council (ERC) is the first pan-European funding organisation for frontier research. It aims to stimulate scientific excellence in Europe by encouraging competition for funding between the very best, creative researchers of any nationality and age. The ERC also strives to attract top researchers from anywhere in the world to come to Europe.

From 2007 to 2013 under the seventh EU Research Framework Programme (FP7), the ERC’s budget was €7.5 billion. Under the new EU research programme (2014-2020), Horizon 2020, the ERC has a substantially increased budget of over €13 billion.

Since its launch, the ERC has funded over 4,500 researchers.

The ERC consists of an independent Scientific Council and an Executive Agency. The Scientific Council, the ERC’s governing body, is composed of 22 distinguished scientists and scholars, including the ERC President. They define the scientific funding strategy and methodologies, and act on behalf of the scientific community in Europe to promote creativity and innovative research. Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon has been the ERC President since 1 January 2014. The ERC Executive Agency implements the ERC component of Horizon 2020 and is led by Director Pablo Amor.

higher education - Malta Business Review

Making sure you Meet the challenges of Modern business

by Ross Foster

Business is always developing: new ways of interacting, managing and motivating people; new strategies replacing the old and modern education chipping away at outdated methods. In a fast paced, competitive environment there’s always a need for those who keep up with all the constant changes. Learning is a life-long pursuit, this is why Global College Malta, the only higher education institution in the south, is offering the professionals of Malta master’s degrees in business from one of the UK’s most respected universities.

Whether you just want to keep up with modern business practices, extend your opportunities or excel at your current role, the college has master’s degree courses that can be studied part time to suit your busy schedule. What’s more, these courses can be studied on their own or with the option of specialisations, allowing you to expand your area of expertise. The business courses, in partnership with the University of Chester, consist of the MSc in Management with the option of a finance or HRM specialisation, which will give existing professionals an understanding of advanced management, while also giving them a firm grounding in more specific areas of business. The other course they’re offering is a master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA). The MBA is the most popular postgraduate degree on the market and is valued by employers worldwide. The specialist pathways in project management or international marketing will equip students with a range of specific skills that can be applied to existing or future employment.

new development: SmartCity Malta, all of which adds up to an impressive start for the college.

The doors are always open to interested parties so if you think you’d like to study one of their master’s degrees in business, please contact them via the channels below: To contact GCM regarding details or advice, email admissions@gcmalta.com or contact via phone on +356 218 01252.

EDITOR’S NOTE Ross Foster is a recent English and writing graduate from Britain. His interests in editing have opened up his career from his lowly initial dreams of becoming a successful author, to more lucrative pursuits. Jokes aside, he loves all things to do with writing and has found a second home in Malta. He has a background in voluntary teaching, copywriting and producing subject specific articles for websites.

Global College Malta understands that working professionals don’t have a lot of time on their hands, which is why their part time study option cuts lesson time down to two sessions a week, while the rest of the course is taught through E-learning and flexible private study. With the help of the University of Chester, Global College Malta wants to build on the strong business community in Malta, by nurturing students who have yet to break into the employment market, and making qualified experts out of those already imbedded in the industry. It makes sense that an investment in education will lead to the growth of Malta’s, already blossoming, economy.

During the college’s short time as an established institution of higher education they have struck partnership deals with two top British universities, made connections with companies across Malta to develop internship opportunities for their students and made an investment in Malta’s most exciting www.maltabusinessreview.net

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Malta Business Review - case study: pKF Malta

Hospitality industry- WHo cares?

BACKGROUND PKF Malta embarked on a project concerning the contribution of hotels from charges of accommodation to economy. The crux of this exercise lied in investigating the effect resulting from a reduction in VAT rate from the current rate at 7% to 5% on the Gross Value Added (GVA) by hotels to the economy compared to the resulting loss to government of tax revenue. The results obtained through this statistical analysis could provide useful figures as to how the economy would respond to the aforementioned VAT reduction. It is important to highlight that this project was not endorsed nor financed by any third party or MHRA and was conducted by PKF on its own esteem.

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MBR: Naturally, being a statistical department you had to make use of certain statistical tools and techniques. Would you mind elaborating as to which tools were used in this study?

PKF: The main statistical tools used throughout the survey were time series analysis and generalised linear models (GLMs).

Time series analysis was primarily used to study the trends and behavioural patterns of the variables under study. Through this analysis, future projections of these variables could be obtained, the results of which would prove crucial in the later stages of the study. General linear models were used mostly in investigating the relationships between the independent and dependent variables. These would subsequently provide numerical coefficients which would indicate the degree of dependence of the dependent variable on the independent variables.

These two techniques combined together hence provided the

Case study: PKF Malta - Malta Business Review

forecasts and predictions for the GVA to the economy by accommodation as well as for the government’s VAT revenue.

MBR: You mentioned analysing data in the previous question. Which data did you make use of and who provided it?

PKF: There were a number of variables which were used throughout the study. Two groups of variables were first identified, that is, the dependent variables and the independent variables.

The difference between the two is basically which variable will be assumed to be dependent on the others. In this case the dependent variables were the GVA to the economy by Accommodation (made available through the NSO) and government VAT revenue figures (made available through the VAT department).

The independent variables used in this study as predictors were the total arrivals in collective accommodations (data available through the ACCOMSTAT survey conducted by the NSO), the restaurant and hotel price index (data available through NSO press releases) and restaurant and hotel employment figures (data made available through NSO press releases). All the data used ranged from 2008 up to the most recent figures made available as of mid-August.

MBR: What does the analysis reveal in terms of the GVA to the economy?

PKF: The results seem to be very favourable indeed. Using a VAT rate of 7%, the predicted GVA from accommodation totalled €248 million whilst a 5% rate of VAT resulted in €289 million for 2014.

The reduction in VAT induced an increase in the GVA equal to €41 million. These figures by themselves might seem rather encouraging; however one must compare these to the loss in government VAT revenue. Using a 7% rate of VAT, government would be expected to collect €31 million from accommodation only. A VAT rate of 5% would naturally result in a smaller amount being collected, in fact estimates show that this figure would stand at €23 million. The change in VAT gave rise to a decrease in government revenue amounting to €7.8 million.

MBR: So your analysis suggests that a reduction in VAT will amount €7.8 million with a favourable increment of €41 million in GVA by accommodation.

Readers may well ask can you be certain that such a positive result will materialise PKF: What the study does include however, are the so called confidence

intervals. These intervals, set at 95% for this study, to provide a range of values, values between the lower bound and upper bound. These values guarantee that with a probability of 95%, the actual figures observed will lie between these two bounds. The figure quoted is what is called the expected value, that value which when averaged out on all possible values proved to be the most likely.

We can therefore assert, with a certain degree of confidence, that these results are indeed realistic.

Greece had announced plans to reduce the VAT charged on the food services offered in restaurants, bars, taverns and hotels from 23% down to 13%

with the increase in profits, the majority of the respondents stated that they would invest this money in hotel facilities following a decrease in VAT. It resulted that 72% of the entire sample declared that they would invest in the hotel facilities should they face a decrease in VAT. The hoteliers were also asked what particular investments they would consider with the most popular responses being the refurbishment of existing facilities, training of staff, investing in hotel property, increasing the spend in marketing, expanding the number of rooms and investing in hotel products. MBR The PKF team of statisticians who compiled the study: Lynsey Schembri, Jaromir Sant, Luca Sacco and Malcolm Attard.

MBR: Has there been other countries which reduced VAT in Europe ?

PKF: Yes of course! Greece had announced plans to reduce the VAT charged on the food services offered in restaurants, bars, taverns and hotels from 23% down to 13% from the 1st of August 2013 up until the 31st of December 2013. This period was considered as a trial period to check how the Greek economy would respond to such a measure. The outcome was a positive one as the VAT rates were kept at their reduced amount. Indeed positive results have been observed with an increase of 39% in tourist income in May 2013 when compared to the same month in the previous year, mostly reflected through the 24% increase in tourist arrivals. Such results augur well for the Maltese scenario and one can only hope that Malta records similar if not even better results given it has a much more stable economy than the Greek one.

MBR: With regards to the reduction in VAT, this would naturally translate into lesser costs for hoteliers and hence increased profits. Readers may argue this extra revenue will simply to payed out in dividends and not contribute much to the economy?

PKF: Numbers by themselves do not give an accurate representation, mainly due to the dependence of the outcomes on human behaviour. It is with this particular issue in mind that a survey was conducted amongst hoteliers to obtain a deeper insight as to how they would react to a change in VAT. Indeed, when asked what they would do

EDITOR’S NOTE PKF Malta is a fast growing, progressive firm that will meet the technical standards that your organisation expects. As a member of PKF International they provide services to a list of prestigious clients and have always enjoyed an excellent reputation which stems from their dedication, professionalism and enthusiasm to serve their clients. PKF Malta is a member of PKF International, a network of independent firms of accountant and business advisors with more than 440 offices in over 100 countries. PKF International is a network member of the Forum of Firms, an organisation dedicated to consistent and high quality standards of financial reporting and auditing practices worldwide. PKF credentials are well valued by the Government and its Departments, in particular, the Inland Revenue, the VAT Department, the Malta Chamber of Commerce as well as the commercial sector in general. Auditing Service is one of the main professional services PKF Malta offer.

Our ultimate audit objective is to express our formal opinion on the Company’s financial statement as required by law. P[KF Malta are also committed to providing our clients with a high quality and efficient service that results in positive and constructive assistance to management. This covers both the primary controls built into the company’s systems to ensure the accuracy of accounting records and enhancing general management controls. Presently the Firm also includes a number of professionals and graduates in economics, mathematics, statistics, law and financial audits, serviced from two offices in B’Kara and Sliema with the support of a small but specialised administrative staff.

www.maltabusinessreview.net

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Corporate event of the Month - Malta Business Review

eXante’s roots

by Patrick J. O’Brien

Alexey Kirienko EXANTE’s CEO presents Hon Jose Herrera with a 50 year old Bonsai tree as a symbol of Malta’s upcoming celebrations, 50 years as independence state

Born from necessity, EXANTE has definitely brought innovation and sophistication to Malta’s funds industry he Portomaso-based integrated brokerage and fund platform company held its first high profile business breakfast at Villa Arrigo, last month. The event which was a sold out affair was attended by some of the top leaders in finance and attracted interest from potential investors as well as attendees from Government bodies.

“I am very happy EXANTE choose Malta as their strategic location, their decision to invest in Malta has proved to be a good one” Hon Jose Herrera MP stated as he welcome guests at this lavish affair. “New projects are on the way.

Investment is to increase. Malta is proud to host such a successful company as EXANTE.” The event gave EXANTE directors an opportunity to present their unique business model. All founders came with a previous background in trading, when they could not find the technologically advanced service provider they needed for their infrastructure, they set about building their own platform for global execution which provided very high speeds and a presence on most global exchanges. Friends became the platform’s first customers and the set-up developed into EXANTE, established in Malta in 2011.

At the seminar, Alexey Kirienko, CEO of EXANTE spoke about how proud the company was to be Maltese and praised the work of both FinanceMalta and the MFSA. Gatis Eglitis and Anatoliy Knyazev both co-founders of the company, gave presentations on EXANTE and Bitcoin. Notably, EXANTE marked a first in the world of Bitcoin investing when they opened up their Automatic Trading Platform (ATP) for their landmark Bitcoin Fund to allow share trading by investors.

“The purpose of the fund was to give an opportunity for professional investors and eligible counterparties to take an advantage of appreciation of the digital currency Bitcoin, which otherwise would not be possible” stated Anatoliy Knyazev to a attentive crowd. This topic was of great interest to all in attendance judging by the Q and A session which was moderated

by EXANTE’s award winning communications director Patrick J O’ Brien George Grech, Head Trading at EXANTE gave an informative presentation on EXANTEs trading platform and the benefits to the many potential investors who attended the breakfast.

Guest speakers were PWC’s George Sammut, his presentation on line security drew many

questions whilst FinanceMalta’s Bruno Lecuyer, head of business development spoke on how prepared Malta is for investment and the diligent work of his organization in promoting the island as a financial hub.

New projects are on the way.

Investment is to increase.

Malta is proud to host such a successful company as EXANTE

“EXANTE directors are very happy as this event has exceeded our expectations. We are so grateful for the support and praise we have received from government and the business community in Malta” stated Patrick J O’ Brien, EXANTE’s communication director.

EXANTE is a next generation prime broker which provides professional traders with a revolutionary trading platform. With offices in Russia, Singapore and Latvia, it seems this broker is prime for other ventures. For those who missed this exclusive event, EXANTE plans similar events in Malta in 2014. MBR www.maltabusinessreview.net

55

Malta Stock Exchange Malta StockTrading Exchange Official Summary for August 2014.

Official Trading Summary for August 2014.

Symbol code Symbol code

Security Security

Monthly High Monthly High

Monthly Low Monthly Low

OPEN OPEN

CLOSE CLOSE

% CHANGE %for CHANGE month

DEALS DEALS

for month

Equities Equities BOV HSB BOV HSB LOM LOM MSI SFC MSI SFC GO IHI GO IHI PZC

PZC GCL FIM GCL FIM MIA MIA MDS MDS GHM GHM 6PM 6PM CW CW MTP MTP RS2 MDI RS2 MDI MLT MLT TML LQS TML LQS STUM STUM

Corporate Bonds Corporate Bonds MI15A MI15A MB15A MB15A GC16A GC16A HB17A MI17A HB17A MI17A MI17C BV18A MI17C BV18A HB18A HB18A MD18A MD18A BV19B

Bank of Valletta p.l.c. Ord €1.00 HSBC Bank Maltap.l.c. p.l.c.Ord Ord€1.00 €0.30 Bank of Valletta HSBC Bank Malta p.l.c.

OrdOrd €0.30 Lombard Bank Malta p.l.c. €0.25 Lombard Bank Malta p.l.c.

Middlesea Insurance p.l.c. Ord Ord €0.25 €0.21

2.170 2.050 2.170 2.050 1.600

2.100 1.900 2.100 1.900 1.540

2.135 2.040 2.135 2.040 1.600

2.155 2.000 2.155 2.000 1.560

0.937% -1.961% 0.937% -1.961% -2.500%

182 147 182 147 10

International Hotel Investments p.l.c. Ord €1.00 GO p.l.c. Ord €0.582343 International Investments p.l.c. Ord €1.00 Plaza Centres Hotel p.l.c. Ord €0.20

1.600 0.950 2.870 0.950 2.870 2.490

1.540 0.870 2.700 0.870 2.700 2.355

1.600 0.875 2.870 0.875 2.870 2.370

1.560 0.930 2.700 0.930 2.700 2.489

-2.500% 6.286% -5.923% 6.286% -5.923% 5.021%

0.730 2.490 0.730 0.600

0.620 2.355 0.620 0.560

0.730 2.370 0.730 0.560

0.640 2.489 0.640 0.600

-12.329% 5.021% -12.329% 7.143%

10 22 8 22 8 65

0.600 0.800 0.680 0.800 0.680 2.350

0.560 0.649 0.650 0.649 0.650 2.200

0.560 0.649 0.680 0.649 0.680 2.350

0.600 0.800 0.655 0.800 0.655 2.250

7.143% 23.267% -3.676% 23.267% -3.676% -4.255%

11 13 10 13 10 26

2.350 1.300 1.300 1.860

2.350 1.300 1.300 1.860 1.860 0.730

2.250 1.275 1.275 1.860 1.860 0.720

-4.255% -1.923% -1.923% 0.000%

26 8 8 1

1.860 0.735 0.735 0.820 0.820 1.140

2.200 1.275 1.275 1.860 1.860 0.720 0.720 0.810 0.810 1.120

0.730 0.820 0.820 1.120

0.720 0.810 0.810 1.120

0.000% -1.370% -1.370% -1.220%

1 12 12 7

MaltaPost p.l.c.

Ord Ord €0.25 RS2 Software p.l.c. €0.20 MIDI p.l.c. Ordp.l.c. €0.20 RS2 Software Ord €0.20 MIDI p.l.c.

Ord €0.20 Malita Investments p.l.c. Ord B €0.50 MalitaMall Investments p.l.c. Ord B €0.50 Tigne p.l.c Ord €0.50

1.140 2.750 0.240 2.750 0.240 0.550

1.120 2.600 0.240 2.600 0.240 0.535

1.120 2.600 0.240 2.600 0.240 0.550

1.120 2.750 0.240 2.750 0.240 0.540

-1.220% 0.000% 0.000% 5.769%

7 5 5 46 2 46 2 25

Loqus Mall Holdings p.l.c.€0.50 Ord €0.232937 Tigne p.l.c Ord Loqus Holdings p.l.c. Ord p.l.c. €0.232937 Santumas Shareholdings Ord €0.582343

0.550 0.525 0.085 0.525 0.085 2.200

0.535 0.515 0.085 0.515 0.085 1.990

0.550 0.515 0.085 0.515 0.085 1.990

0.540 0.525 0.085 0.525 0.085 2.200

Santumas Shareholdings p.l.c. Ord €0.582343

2.200

1.990

1.990

2.200

96.000 96.000 102.000 102.000 90.100

93.000 93.000 102.000 102.000 90.100

96.000 96.000 102.000 102.000 90.100

93.000 93.000 102.000 102.000 90.100

90.100 103.760 96.000 103.760 96.000 100.000

90.100 103.510 89.500 103.510 89.500 99.000

90.100 103.510 96.000 103.510 96.000 99.000

90.100 103.760 89.500 103.760 89.500 100.000

105.020 100.000 105.020 108.030

105.020 99.000 105.020 108.030

105.020 99.000 105.020 108.030

108.030 103.270 103.270 103.010

108.030 103.270 103.270 102.610

108.030 103.270 103.270 102.610

105.020 100.000 105.020 108.030 108.030 103.270

0.000% 1.010% 0.000% 0.000%

Simonds Ciskp.l.c. p.l.c.Ord Ord€0.21 €0.30 MiddleseaFarsons Insurance Simonds Farsons Cisk p.l.c. Ord €0.30 GO p.l.c. Ord €0.582343

Plaza Centres p.l.c. p.l.c. Ord Ord €0.291172 €0.20 GlobalCapital FIMBank p.l.c.p.l.c.

Ord US$0.50 GlobalCapital Ord €0.291172 FIMBank p.l.c. Ord US$0.50 Malta International Airport p.l.c. Ord €0.25 Malta International Airport p.l.c. Ord €0.25 Medserv p.l.c. Ord €0.10 Medserv p.l.c. Ord €0.10 Grand Harbour Marina p.l.c. Ord €0.232937 Grand Harbourp.l.c.

Marina Ord €0.232937 6pm Holdings Ordp.l.c.

GBP0.20 6pm Holdingsp.l.c. p.l.c.Ord Ord€0.10 GBP0.20 Crimsonwing Crimsonwing p.l.c. €0.10 MaltaPost p.l.c.

OrdOrd €0.25

7.5% Mediterranean Investments Holding Plc € 2015 7.5% Holding 6.25%Mediterranean MediterraneanInvestments Bank plc EUR 2015 Plc € 2015 6.25% Mediterranean plc EUR 2015 5.6% GlobalCapital plcBank € 2014/16 5.6% HSBC GlobalCapital plc € 2014/16 4.6% Bank Malta Plc € 2017 7.15% Mediterranean 4.6% HSBC Bank MaltaInvestments Plc € 2017 Holding plc Euro 2015-2017 7.15% Mediterranean Investments Euro 2015-2017 2015-2017 7.15% Mediterranean Investments Holding Holding plc plc USD 4.8% of Valletta Investments plc Notes 2018 7.15%Bank Mediterranean Holding plc USD 2015-2017 4.8% Bank of Valletta 5.9% HSBC Bank Maltaplc PlcNotes € Sub2018 2018 5.9% HSBC Plc € Sub 2018 7% MIDI plcBank EUR Malta 2016-2018

20 65 20 11

0.000% 5.769% 0.000% -1.818% -1.818% 1.942%

0.000% 1.942% 0.000% 10.553%

25 7 2 7 2 9

10.553% Subtotal Subtotal

6389 638

-3.125% -3.125% 0.000%

22 22 3

0.000% 0.000% 0.242% -6.771% 0.242% -6.771% 1.010%

3 2 2 3 17 3 17 2 2 2 1 1 4

BV19A BV19B BV19A IG19A IH19A

7% MIDI plc of EUR 2016-2018 4.25% Bank Valletta plc € Notes 2019 Series 2 Tranche 1 5.35% € 2019 4.25% Bank of Valletta plc Sub € Notes 2019 Series 2 Tranche 1 5.35% Bank of Valletta plc Sub € 2019 6.5% Island Hotels Group Holdings plc € 2017-2019 6.25% Int. Hotel Invest. Plc € 2015-2019

105.760 103.010 105.760 103.610 102.510

105.760 102.610 105.760 103.570 101.510

105.760 102.610 105.760 103.570 102.510

103.270 103.010 105.760 103.010 105.760 103.610 101.510

0.000% 0.390% 0.000% 0.390% 0.000% 0.039% -0.976%

4 3 3 3 2 10

CF19A MB19A

6.25% Corinthia Finance plc € 2016-2019 7.5% Mediterranean Bank plc Subordinated Bonds EUR 2019

103.530 105.100

103.510 105.100

103.510 105.100

103.530 105.100

0.019% 0.000%

8 1

BV20A

4.8% Bank of Valletta Plc Sub € 2020

PC20A

Monthly Low

103.220

103.220

103.610

6.8% Premier Capital plc € Bond 2017-2020

105.510

105.510

105.510

105.510

0.000%

1

IH20A

6.25% International Hotel Investments Plc € 2017 - 2020

104.010

102.510

104.010

102.510

-1.442%

16

PG20A SF20A EF20A

5.5% Pendergardens Developments plc Secured € 2020 Series I 6% Simonds Farsons Cisk plc 2017 - 2020 6.6% Eden Finance plc 2017-2020

103.750 105.260 103.520

102.500 105.210 103.520

103.000 105.210 103.520

103.600 105.260 103.520

0.583% 0.048% 0.000%

17 5 2

TI20A MI21A

6.2% Tumas Investments plc € 2017 - 2020 6% Mediterranean Investments Holding plc Euro 2021

106.500 100.000

105.510 99.990

105.510 100.000

106.500 100.000

0.938% 0.000%

4 5

GF21A IH21A CF22A

4.9% Gasan Finance Company plc € 2019-2021 5.8% International Hotel Investments plc 2021 6% Corinthia Finance plc € 2019-2022

102.000 104.500 103.500

101.750 103.300 103.500

101.750 104.000 103.500

102.000 104.500 103.500

0.246% 0.481% 0.000%

2 9 1

PG22A MS23A

6% Pendergardens Developments plc Secured € 2022 Series II 6% Medserv plc Sec. & Grntd € Notes 2020-2023 S1 T1

106.000 105.980

105.000 105.000

105.000 105.000

105.500 105.000

0.476% 0.000%

16 4

IH23A AX24A

5.8% International Hotel Investments plc 2023 6% AX Investments Plc € 2024

105.000 105.990

103.800 105.010

104.000 105.990

104.200 105.500

0.192% -0.462%

10 13

IG24A MF24A TI24A MC16A

6% Island Hotels Group Holdings plc € 2024 5.3% Mariner Finance plc Unsecured € 2024 5% Tumas Investments plc Unsecured € 2024 7.15% Melita Capital plc € 2014-2016

107.000 104.500 104.260 100.000

106.460 102.580 101.550 100.000

106.460 102.580 101.550 100.000

106.980 104.500 104.260 100.000

0.488% 1.872% 2.669% 0.000%

11 32 7 1

Security

103.610

0.378%

Monthly High

Symbol code

OPEN

CLOSE

% CHANGE

DEALS

8

for month

Subtotal

MSE Index as at end of month : 3,295.511 Govt. Bonds

247

G14B

6.45% MGS 2014 (II)

101.650

101.360

101.650

101.360

-0.285%

G15A

6.10% MGS 2015

104.930

104.470

104.930

104.470

-0.438%

3

G15B

5.9% MGS 2015(II)

106.520

106.050

106.520

106.050

-0.441%

11

G15F

3.75% MGS 2015(VI)

104.210

104.120

104.210

104.120

-0.086%

15

G16A

6.65% MGS 2016

109.920

109.700

109.920

109.710

-0.191%

13

G16B

4.8% MGS 2016 (II)

109.640

109.550

109.600

109.590

-0.009%

G17D G17C G18A G19A G19C G20B G20A G20EA Symbol code G21A G22B G22A G23A

3.75% MGS 2017 (IV) 4.25% MGS 2017 (III) 7.8% MGS 2018 6.6% MGS 2019 3% MGS 2019 (III) 4.6% MGS 2020 (II) 5.2% MGS 2020 (I) 2% MGS 2020 (V) r 5% MGS 2021(I) 4.3% MGS 2022 (II) 5.1% MGS 2022(I) 5.5% MGS 2023 (I)

109.240 111.360 126.620 126.270 108.660 117.380 121.160 103.100 Monthly High 121.750 117.030 122.360 126.690

109.170 111.130 126.420 125.890 108.220 116.730 120.360 102.680 Monthly Low 120.320 115.470 121.370 125.880

109.170 111.210 126.420 125.890 108.220 116.730 120.360 102.680 OPEN 120.320 115.470 121.530 125.880

109.240 111.320 126.620 126.270 108.660 117.380 121.160 103.100 CLOSE 121.660 117.030 122.360 126.690

0.064% 0.099% 0.158% 0.302% 0.407% 0.557% 0.665% 0.409% %1.114% CHANGE 1.351% for month 0.683% 0.643%

2 14 8 5 6 9 7 4 DEALS 38 18 5 3

Monthly High

Monthly Low

OPEN

CLOSE

% CHANGE

DEALS

Symbol code

Security

Security

for month

MSE Index as at end of month : 3,295.511 Note:- Turnover figures of €uro and US$ denominated securities converted to Euro using Central Bank middle exchange rates. For further statistics contact stats@borzamalta.com.mt

56

MSE Index as at end of month : 3,295.511

Note:- Turnover figures of €uro and US$ denominated securities converted to Euro using Central Bank middle exchange rates. For further statistics contact stats@borzamalta.com.mt

9

8

building & cOnstructiOn - Malta Business Review

Our PrOPerty management

services are a PhOne call away

About us

Why choose A turnkey contrActor

Established in 2007, AGF turnkey contractors is a team of dynamic workers with one vision in mind. We strive to build up a good relationship throughout each and every job.

Turnkey refers to the middleman between the owner of a property, that needs work done,. It is considered to be the most efficient way for a project to be finalised in the shortest time and at the most cost-effective price!

Our motto is “ Client satisfaction , on time , everytime”.

The main advantage is that you would be dealing with only one contractor, who manages the various jobs. The project manager in charge would deal with all the necessary preparations, permits, schedule of works, timing, plans, materials involved and subcontractors.

Director Jevon Gatt comes from a background of building contactors where he worked as Foremen, Works manager and site supervisor for many years.

AGF Turnkey contractors has the experience and know-how to take on any kind of project, ranging from the finishing of a shell apartment to the total construction of a villa, or a block of flats, and anything that comes under the umbrella of the construction and finishes industry.

Why AGF

Throughout the years, we have taken various projects in hands that have enables us to be able to say YES we now have enough experience to be able to guarantee clients satisfaction all the time.

Our team of, skilled and experienced workmen – all cooperating to achieve the same goal – guarantees that each and every project gets all the attention required. That one goal is a professional job, carried out to the highest standards possible on budget and in time, everytime!

We also know that the highest standards of workmanship need to be undertaken and that is surely a label that AGF is known for.

services

Construction | Structural alterations | Project management | Electrical and Plumbing services Plastering and Painting | Tile laying | Gypsum soffits | Marble laying | Restoration of old farmhouses Aluminium works | Wood works | Parquet flooring | Water proofing | Interior design

neWs section

Managing a property can sometimes prove to be stressful especially if you live overseas.

If you,re based locally we can still handle your property and handle and problems that you can come across.

AGF will help you STOP worrying about anything.

From rent collection, to any maintenance needs, we ensure the best quality in the your property needs.

Our property management services include: • • • • • • •

Regular visits when unoccupied.

Inventory checks Paying any outstanding bills.

Cleaning of the property on a weekly basis.

24/7 repairs.

Maintaining property rental investment to the maximum.

Selling the property

contAct detAils

Email jevgatt@maltanet.net or Jevgatt@gmail.com | Tel : 9945 0232/ 2141 7115 Address : GALINE, Josmar complex, Triq id difisa civili, Mosta | Facebook: AGF-Turnkey-Contractors

www.maltabusinessreview.net

57

Malta Business Review - newSMAkeRS

MSV Life SeLectS Munich Re/ALLfinAnZ SoftwARe to Speed Sign-upS, cAtApuLt SALeS And eMpoweR itS dedicAtion to cuStoMeRS Last month, MSV Life p.l.c. (MSV) began implementing ALLFINANZ Interview Server (AIS) software from Munich Re Automation Solutions Ltd. to accelerate new business growth and further improve customer acquisition and service. A Munich Re ALLFINANZ team visited MSV last week.

Implementation is expected by year-end.

“Our investment in Munich Re’s ALLFINANZ life insurance automation software and services empowers every MSV employee’s dedication to our goals of superlative customer service,” says David G. Curmi, Chief Executive Officer at MSV. “Service here isn’t a marketing assertion. Our high levels of customer concern set us apart from competitors and have been central to our success. We are eagerly replacing old technologies that barriered web-based sign-ups, added steps, and pushed up costs.”

“We chose Munich Re’s ALLFINANZ Interview Server (AIS) because of its international reputation as the easiest to use and most flexible underwriting rules engine for life insurers.

Our customers’ needs, industry competition and offerings will evolve. AIS enables agile responses, safe and profitable rule changes, clear what-ifs, and flexible reporting. Beyond the software’s successful demonstrations of speed and flexibility at every phase, our confidence was bolstered by our relationship with Munich Re’s reinsurance and consulting services, which began with our founding in 1994,” says Mr Curmi.

Paul Donnelly, Executive Vice President at Munich Re Automation Solutions for Europe, Middle East & Africa, says, “MSV’s forward-thinking philosophy and actions should take it to the front of its field. By deploying ALLFINANZ AIS, the most complete end-to-end risk assessment solution to simplify sales and underwriting, MSV can expect rapid sign-ups, clearer, more-efficient underwriting, and reduced administration costs.”

The correlation between ALLFINANZ AIS electronic applications, faster binding of customers, and more predictable underwriting leading to higher income and profits is proven daily in industry-leading life insurance companies on several continents.

Other Munich Re-ALLFINANZ customers include Asteron and TAL Life Limited in Australia and New Zealand; De Goudse in the Netherlands; EuroLife in Cyprus; New Ireland Assurance Company; SpareBank in Norway; Liverpool Victoria, PruProtect, Unum Limited and Zurich Financial Group in the UK; and Zurich Group and Ergo Direkt in Germany. MBR

MSV Life p.l.c. is authorised by the Malta Financial Services Authority to carry out long-term business under the Insurance Business Act, 1998.

MgARR MARinA fiRSt to hAVe jet Ski fLoAting dockS and the jet ski slides into position with the help of rollers.

Launching the jet ski into the water is equally easy as with a slight push, the jet ski is back into the water.

Hiring a jet ski floating dock saves you a lot of stress not only during the summer season as the facilities offer an all-yearround solution, allowing jet skis to dry out of the water.

If you are a jet ski owner, there is one very valid reason why to move to Mgarr Marina in Gozo. Apart from its existing 240 berthing spaces for all kinds and sizes of boats, Harbour Management Ltd, operators of Mgarr Marina, added floating docks for jet skis, saving owners the hassle of trailing them in and out of the water every time.

Currently, the facilities accommodate six jet skis but these will increase on demand. The floating docks allow users to lift their jet ski, or even a small boat, at the touch of a throttle

58

“Although we have only launched the facilities recently, there is a high demand for them as they save owners time and hard work to trail jet skis and launching them in and out of the water,” said Mgarr Marina General Manager Gennaro Xerri.

“Apart from that, the facilities allow no marine growth or corrosion on the hull as the jet ski will not be touching the water. The facilities are easy and convenient to use, serviced with fresh water supply for rinsing, engine-flushing after use and safely berthed in a secured marina.” MBR For further information and reservation, contact Gennaro Xerri on 99242501 or send an email to info@gozomarina.net.

EXCELLENCE EXCELLENCE SIMPLY DELIVERED SIMPLY DELIVERED

MIA MIA Cargo Cargo Village, Village, Luqa Luqa LQA LQA 3290.

3290. Tel: Tel: 21800148 21800148 E-mail: E-mail: mlainfo@dhl.com mlainfo@dhl.com Web: Web: www.dhl.com.mt www.dhl.com.mt

www.pwc.com/mt

Finding true value

We work to create the value our clients, people, and communities are looking for.

And we do this by building long-term relationships and contributing to your success.

To find out how we could work with you visit www.pwc.com/mt

Š 2014 PricewaterhouseCoopers. All rights reserved. PwC refers to the Malta member firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is a separate legal entity.

Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details.