Sources close to the health sector have revealed that the anonymous shareholders of Vitals Global Healthcare have sold off their shares to the new concession operators of Karen Grech Hospital, Gozo General Hospital and St Lukes Hospital, Steward Healthcare.

In 2016, government made headlines after it was revealed that a 30-year-concession was awarded to a previously unknown company, with no track record in the medical sector, Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH).

Just two years after the concession agreement was made, it was revealed that VGH sold off its concession to Boston-based American healthcare provider, Steward Healthcare. VGH was mired in controversy due to its complicated legal structure, where layers of companies were set up creating difficulty in discovering the names of the individuals behind the deal.

While the majority of the shareholders became known, a minority shareholding remained anonymous.

It is now known that 95 per cent of VGH’s shareholding has been sold off to Steward Healthcare while Ashok Rattehalli, one of the original VGH investors who held up the transfer after resorting to legal action, owns the remaining 5% of shares.

MFSA documents show that Steward Healthcare now owns 1140 shares in VGH, while Rattehalli owns 60, corroborating the 95-5 per cent shareholding information.

Controversy was sparked when it was announced that VGH would be transferring its concession to Steward over the fact that this was a private deal between two companies, meaning the public is unaware of neither the value of the share sale nor the concession transfer.

While the public is not privy to private dealings between private companies, the issue stemming from the agreement dealing with three public assets, which are the hospitals, has made people question who exactly profited off the public hospitals, and how much they made.

With the share sale of VGH to Steward Healthcare, this effectively means that VGH as Malta has known it is a different company with different shareholders but operating under the previous name.

Sources say the company will later be renamed.