The acquisition of the government’s majority shares in Tug Malta will provide the Rimorchiatori Group with an excellent opportunity to develop the three sectors of harbour towage, offshore towage and international shipping, group president Giovanni Delle Piane said yesterday.

Speaking during the share sale agreement of the government’s 73.2 per cent shareholding in Tug Malta for EUR24.7 million, the president of Rimorchiatori Riuniti Spa said the acquisition of the shares meant that the group would come back to a market it abandoned several years ago and continue the group’s success story, this time in Malta.

Mr Delle Piane said the company was strongly committed to invest and develop the three sectors, adding that acquiring Tug Malta should enable them to develop two of the three sectors where they were present: the harbour activity and the offshore activity.

He said that due to Malta’s position in the centre of the Mediterranean, the outlook for the off-port towage, including salvage emergency and anti-pollution activities on the route between Gibraltar and the Suez Channel, was also very encouraging. He said the ideal position of Malta was such that it would be able to provide vessels at a very competitive price, having the advantage of cost savings for mobilisation and demobilisation, when compared to a relative remote location such as Genoa.

On the plans for the future, Mr Delle Piane said that Rimorchiatori Riuniti was planning to invest over EUR22 million in two new tugs and would also purchase equipment in order to upgrade some of the existing tugs so as to make them more versatile. Apart from the investment in Tug Malta, Rimorchiatori Riuniti would also update and train existing seafarers of Tug Malta in order to achieve the necessary qualifications to perform the new activities outside of the Maltese coast, he said.

Mr Delle Piane also announced that the holding company, Rimorchiatori Malta Ltd, that was recently incorporated for the purpose of acquiring the shares of Tug Malta, was willing to invest even further, beyond the commitments and undertakings it had made with the Maltese government.

“We intend to form a subsidiary that will acquire a new built off-shore vessel for a value of approximately EUR40 million that will become the flagship of the whole group. This vessel is currently one of the most powerful vessels ever seen in the Mediterranean, and is currently being built by a Spanish yard. This is proof of our willingness to develop and invest further in your beautiful island,” he said.

Yesterday’s ceremony was presided by Investment, Industry and Information Technology Minister Austin Gatt, who said that over the past four years, the government moved out completely from the maritime sector by passing the Freeport, Sea Malta and Tug Malta to private investors.