The government has decided to extend the call for expressions of interest in Malta Shipyards following the successful take-up of the voluntary early retirement and redundancy schemes.

The total number of employees at the shipyards stands at about 150, a number which is certainly more feasible to attract potential investors. As had been stated on numerous occasions by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, the success of such schemes would have been a critical factor in determining whether the privatisation of the yards goes ahead or not.

In view of this, the government has decided that the privatisation process can be extended to incorporate other marine activities besides the traditional ones carried out until now, a Department of Information said yesterday.

Consequently, it is in the country’s best interest to extend the invitation to prospective investors for the purpose of any maritime activity and therefore a call for further expressions of interest is to be issued. This call will appear in an advertisement to be published in the Financial Times today. The submissions are to be received by 3 November.

Following the initial call for expressions of interest in August, the Privatisation Unit had received 43 such expressions of interest for the four facilities, Malta Ship Repair, Malta Ship Building, Malta Superyacht and Manoel Island Yacht Yard.

All the companies who have registered an interest under the first call have been informed of this development and assured that they will remain in the process for the second stage.

In a short period of time, all those who have registered interest and those registering an interest under this new call will receive a Process Letter outlining the second stage of the process and an invitation to collect the Request for Proposals and Information Memorandum.