Malta Shipyards Ltd said a report in Business Today, inferring that the losses the company was projecting for its financial year ending last December, was exaggerated.

The report was categorically mistaken in the information it quoted that “Malta Shipyards [is] to register Lm2 million in losses”.

Although the year-end accounts of the company still needed to be finalised, the figures were not expected to change from those projected, which showed that for the financial year ending December 2006, a net loss of around Lm8.8 million would be recorded.

The company could only compensate for this performance as a result of the state aid which the government made available in accordance with the company business plan.

For this and the obvious reason that the government was the sole shareholder of this company, the Investment, Industry and Information Technology Ministry was regularly and accurately updated on the company’s financial situation.

The GWU was also regularly briefed of the financial performance. In fact, a full presentation of the financial performance was made to senior officials of the General Workers’ Union on 31 January. The information given went beyond what one would usually find in the audited accounts of a company and focused on the areas of weaknesses which needed to be corrected if the company was to improve its performance.