Today’s Newspaper Cuttings
28August 2015
Today’s online news Timesofmalta.com Go Forthnet shares worth €14m – Go Direct No fair warning – Melita Anti Internet Tax – GO Anti
Newsbook.com.mt Vodafone Malta b’unur għall-aħjar servizz fit-telefonija ċellulari – Vodafone Direct
Vodafone in the news
CLIENT: MEDIUM: DATE: AVE:
Vodafone Direct newsbook.com.mt 27 August 2015 €120
Vodafone Malta b'unur għall-aħjar servizz fit-telefonija ċellulari Charmaine Attard - 27/08/15 01:50 PM
Vodafone Malta rebħet l-unur prestiġġjuż tal-ICERTIAS Best Buy Award 2015/2016. Skont dan l-istħarriġ, ċittadini Maltin ikkonfermaw li Vodafone Malta toffri l-aħjar offerti u servizz fit-telefonija ċellulari. L-istħarriġ sar minn organizzazzjoni Żvizzera fi Frar li għadda fost 1,200 persuna Maltija ta’ 'l fuq minn 15-il sena.
Other stories in the news
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GO Direct timesofmalta.com 27 August 2015 € 230
Thursday, August 27, 2015, 00:01
GO Forthnet shares worth €14m
GO’s shareholding in Forthnet is currently valued at approximately €14 million, according to the current share price of Forthnet on the Athens Stock Exchange – a far cry from the estimated €125 million it invested in the Greek telecoms company in past years. Over the past year rival Greek firm OTE showed interest to buy Forthnet’s TV business while Wind and Vodafone, which own 40 per cent of Forthnet, made a joint bid to buy the rest of its shares. Both OTE and Wind/Vodafone made non-binding bids which could result in as much as €40 million for GO’s share. However, the process to turn these into formal bids has been held up by the political and economic turmoil in Greece. This is the reason why GO, which holds the shares in Forthnet through its 50 per cent stake in Forgendo, last year reclassified the investment as being “held for sale” and said that the “highly probable” sale was expected to be completed within 12 months. On its books, the investment in Forthnet is only valued at €6.6 million – and even that is subject to impairment testing.
The process to turn non-binding bids into formal ones has been held up by the turmoil in Greece Save for €6.6 million, all the amount invested has been written off. Any money beyond €6.6 million that might be recovered from the eventual sale of Forthnet will be a bonus to
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GO Direct timesofmalta.com 27 August 2015 € 230
shareholders. It remains to be seen how things will develop now that GO’s majority owners, EIT, have declared that they intend to sell out their 60 per cent stake. Sources told The Business Observer that Forthnet would be incredibly difficult to value in the current situation – which might influence a prospective buyer for GO. GO recently transferred around €50 million worth of property into a separate company – Malta Properties Co. Ltd – which will be listed separately on the Malta Stock Exchange. EIT said it intends to retain its shareholding in this new company. EIT is the primary investment vehicle in telecommunications for Dubai Holding. In 2011 it divested 14 per cent of the 40 per cent shareholding which it then held in Axiom, the UAE-based mobile handset retailer and distributor, and earlier this year it sold its investment in Interoute.
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GO Anti timesofmalta.com 27 August 2015 € 230
Thursday, August 27, 2015, 00:01 by Caroline Dingli, Naxxar
Internet tax I wonder how much profit GO has made this summer from requiring us to pay an additional €5 each time we top up with a mobile data bundle. The cost of a bundle comes out of our post-tax top-up balance. The minimum top-up denomination is €5, meaning €25 is required to provide sufficient account balance to buy a €20 6GB bundle – a 25 per cent internet tax. On the €5 500MB bundle thisis even worse – a 100 per cent internet tax.
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Melita Anti timesofmalta.com 27 August 2015 € 230
Thursday, August 27, 2015, 00:01 by Joe Grech, Santa Venera
No fair warning A letter by Malcolm Briffa, on surcharges for the over 60s (August 13), has just come to my notice. My experience with Melita has been an utter disappoitment. I am in possession of the Karta Anzjan and have been a subscriber with Melita for quite a long time now. My landline phone, internet and mobile are all their connection. One fine day I discovered that they were charging for sending bills by post so I opted for an online ones. But no notices or e-mails of any sort were sent to remind me of the monthly fee. Then all of a sudden I woke up with no connection of any sort. I could not even phone Melita to ask what was the matter. So I called at a local shop and they told me that my payment was overdue and to get back a connection I had to pay €80. My frustration wasn’t that I had to pay such a sum but that they: a) didn’t remind me my bills were overdue; b) no connection was available, not even for an emergency; and c) they didn’t warn me that they were going to disconnect me. Other providers warn their clients that their account is running low. I emailed Melita about this and they assured me that they send e-mails to warn clients in such cases. Nevertheless, I can vouch that this is absolutely not true at all.