The death was announced yesterday of entrepreneur Vivian Bianchi, who died on Friday aged 88 after a long illness. His funeral took place yesterday.

While many would probably associate him with the Bianchi Group of Companies, his own life was nothing short of incredible. Born in rich and opulent Alexandria in Egypt, his lifestyle had to change when Nasser nationalised foreign enterprises in 1964 and Mr Bianchi and his family were forced to leave Egypt and establish their home in Malta.

From that time, however, he developed the already existing Maltese branch of the family company to what it is today: one of the prime Maltese shipping companies, along with other interests.

The company website states that the business is a private, family-held and controlled company that has been active in international trade and commerce for well over 100 years. 

The origins of the company date back to the late 19th century when the founder, Icilio Bianchi, established a company dealing in maritime affairs known as the Mercantile Shipping & Coaling Co. Bianchi & Co. (Malta) Ltd. 

At that time Bianchi & Co. (Egypt) Ltd was also established. Over the years to 1964, when all foreign enterprises in Egypt were nationalised, this company was the leading shipping agency. It owned and operated a 60-strong large vessel river fleet known as the Egyptian Star Navigation Company, together with the Nile River Cruises vessel Arabia and it developed the first tourist villa resort known as ‘Shatek El Fardous’ in Agami to the west of Alexandria which to this day carries the Bianchi name. Through two companies, the Societe Egyptian Urbaine et Rurale and the Societe Immobilaire de la Bas Egitte, it owned the largest buildings in the centre of Alexandria and in Cairo, through the Societe Hadaek El Ahram, it owned and developed a large “Citte Jardin” just below the Pyramids of Giza and adjacent to the Mena House Hotel on the desert road from Cairo to Alexandria.

Since the privatisation of the transport and shipping sector in Egypt, the Bianchi interest has been conserved with Egyptian partners who together have established the now leading shipping agency Medlevant Shipping Company SAE with headquarters at 9 Hussein Hassab Street, al Khartoum Square, Alexandria. 

After the nationalisation of their assets in Egypt, the Bianchis concentrated their efforts on developing and enlarging their Maltese company. 

The Maltese company was heavily involved in ship agency work and port services and operated a large fleet of tugs and barges under the name ‘The Alliance Lighter Company’ through which the company, together with others, developed a towage company known as “Midmed Towage Company”.

An Al Ahram newspaper weekly supplement in September 1998 described life in Alexandra at a time when the Bianchis, especially Vivian, were in their heyday – the 1950s.

The area known afterwards by the name of Bianchi Beach was Agami made famous by E.M. Foster in his Alexandria Trilogy. Sailing from Alexandria to the port of Dekheila in 1915, Forster mentions Fort Agame (or the Persian Fort, which may have given Agami its name) at the Western tip of the port as a strategic point in the naval attacks on the city. He also alludes to the “superb bathing possibilities”, and warns that although sailing from Alexandria to the fort is easy, the return voyage can be tricky at night when the wind abates.

In 1942, the war was raging in Europe, but in Alexandria, British officers on leave were “discovering” E.M. Forster’s beach. Like him, they were awed by the unique beauty of the secluded surroundings. Agami soon became a household name among the British forces stationed in Egypt, and was considered the ideal spot to spend a quiet day, picnicking on the beach and swimming in the turquoise waters. Boats loaded with young pleasure-seekers left from the port of Anfoushi at weekends, heading for the bay that was still inaccessible from land at the time.

The area was especially liked by hunters, who were mainly interested in shooting turtle-doves and quails.

So was Major Bianchi, a Maltese living in Egypt and an officer in the British Army, whose name was to become intimately linked with the area. It is also said, according to Nabieh Berzi, who wrote about the history of the area, that Montgomery drew the plans of the battle of Al-Alamein in one of the lodges.

At the end of the war, Major Bianchi, who already occupied one of the most spacious and best equipped hunting lodges (according to Berzi, he was also the first and, for a long time, the only Agami dweller to have a swimming pool), was given a few choice feddans on the sea front as a reward for services rendered to the British. He began planning a small summer resort, soon to be known as Agami Bianchi.

The chalets were quickly snatched up by Bianchi’s close friends who, by the beginning of the 1950s, had formed an exclusive little community, overseen by his son Vivian. A typical house in the new resort featured a large veranda facing the sea, two small bedrooms, a living area with a tiny recess for the Primus stove, a shower and a toilet. There was no electricity or running water. A hand pump, operated by the Bedouins hired as house servants, produced an acrid-smelling greyish trickle of water, unfit for consumption.

A volleyball area was set out nearby to provide a diversion for sports lovers tired of swimming or playing racquetball on the beach. The volleyball game soon became the most popular of the day, with Agamistes of all ages drifting towards the small enclosure after their siesta, to play or simply watch. The cosmopolitan Alexandrian socialites who had hastened to rent the Bianchi beach villas as soon as they became available found peace and quiet removed from city life, yet close enough to keep an eye on their businesses.

The place became fashionable.

Since the war, and before the advent of the Bianchi era, the local population had already been renting makeshift wooden cabins, usually for the day or sometimes, to the more fearless, overnight. Now, they found in Bianchi’s houses a model which they could, and did, emulate – right outside the boundaries of the Maltese major’s “settlement”. Little houses rose up from the sand in no time, and were rented out for less than £100 a year, but the vast expanses of dunes still appeared deserted, and peace and privacy remained the undeniable privilege of all Agami dwellers.

Summing up the vacation months in Alexandria, an article published in Images magazine on 20 September 1958 hailed Agami as a choice Mediterranean resort and abundantly praised the “amply justified reputation of its beaches, which attract and retain the true aficionados of life by the sea”. A harbinger of things to come, the article stated: “Agami’s possibilities are immense... [It] is larger than Miami Beach, more luminous than Copacabana, more temperate than Deauville, more dazzling than Juan-les-Pins”.

In the summer of 1964, nationalisation had already wrought havoc among the Agamistes when the Agami Housing and Construction Company took over the Bless, Bianchi and Bitash “developments”. Few members of the old guard had stayed on to defend the quaint way of life.

Running water and electricity were introduced in preparation for the incredible building boom that was to follow. Without adequate infrastructure or proper planning, apartment complexes, commercial buildings and princely villas were constructed at a furious pace, while the dunes that had previously only yielded delicious figs were levelled to accommodate the foundations of high-rise buildings.

Today the company in Malta has interests in shipping, travel, real estate and insurance.

Mr Bianchi’s wife, Blanche, nee Ayoub, died in August last year. He is survived by his children, Patricia, Ralph, Michael (MIA shareholder and director) and Petra.