Malta invites offers for its shipyards

Malta?s privatisation unit is offering the shipyards on a 30 year lease and the call for expressions of interest does not specifically limit the use of the assets to shiprepair.

It does include a few clauses that would indicate that the ?yards should remain active in their current role. For example, it specifies that the “shipyard facilities should be commercially deployed in a sustainable manner”. It also specifies that it is not mandatory for “proponents to offer employments to existing employees of Malta Shipyards Ltd”.

The document was releasedtoday and will be sent out internationally to potential investors. It specifies that “Within the context of the right-sizing efforts that are currently underway at Malta Shipyards, matters relating to employees will be discussed and finalised at the appropriate stage in the process”.

The document gives the total revenue of the shipyards as ?49 million in 2007, down from ?57 million. Superyacht services now accounts for 12.3 % of the revenue (up from 5.5 % in 2006) with conversion dropping from 60 % to 43 %, and shiprepair up from 25% up to 34.5 %.

So far, 14 expressions of interest have been made but it is not clear whether they are interested in the ?yard as a whole or in one or more of the four business units ? the shiprepair facilities, the shipbuilding and steel fabrication facilities, Malta Super Yacht Services and the Manoel Island yacht repair and refit facilities.

The new owners are being bound to take on all confirmed orders that have not started on the take-over date, but contracts already in hand will be concluded by Malta Shipyards, subject to an “appropriate transitional arrangement”.

In the meantime, a steady stream of shipyard workers have contacted the help desks set up to tackle queries about the ?early retirement schemes? announced last week by the government, although take-up is slow.