I am the ex secretary of the Malta & Europe Hotels Ltd. I am not a frequent reader of MaltaToda but last Thursday I came across an article by Matthew Vella “BICAL owner lays claim to Excelsior shares” on the Internet.
I feel I must ask the editor of The Malta Independent on Sunday for truth’s sake to publish the foregoing, in which I point out the many inaccuracies, lies and slanders, which I feel I must correct without entering into polemics.
The title itself “BICAL owner” is a misnomer. More properly it should have been called “BICAL ex owner”.
Quoting from the article… “both laying claim to the once-ownership of the Grand Hotel Excelsior…”.
Kindly note that Dr Martone never claimed ownership of the hotel, but only 51 per cent of the share capital of Malta & Europe Hotels Ltd. This was the judgement given by at least three court cases, one of which was handed down by the Court of Appeal, which declared that the shares could only belong to Martone and nobody else. If in doubt ask Pace’s legal adviser to procure the document for you!
Continuing… “because Pace says the Excelsior’s former owners declared in an affidavit, seen by this newspaper, that he transferred the shares of the company which owned the hotel…”.
Not the former owners of the hotel but the former owners of 51 per cent of the whole shareholding. This story of the affidavits is not new.
Some time ago Mr Pace tried to reopen a court case that had already declared in favour of Martone, (and the Controller gave him a helping hand by paying a deposit in court of Lm30,000 presumably withdrawn from the amount still due to the shareholders). But it was all in vain because the court rejected his plea. Needless to say, the amount deposited was not refunded.
Further on... “Pace secured the hotel when his company, the MIDC, took over the loan debt which the Ghidolis owed to GUS Export International (gusex), their financiers at the time. Through the company Pabros, Pace rented out the hotel to the Ghidolis since MIDC was the owner of the hypothec on the Excelsior.”.
This is really quite a good “minestrone”. To write these things one must definitely suffer from hallucinations. The Ghidolis never owed any money to GUSEX, it was the company Malta & Europe Hotels Ltd, which, in December 1968, entered into an agreement with GUSEX and obtained a loan of £180,000.
Later on, this debt by the company was taken over by Cecil and Henry Pace personally, of which they paid only a part.
Furthermore, in 1970 it was Malta & Europe Hotels that rented the hotel to Pabros Ltd (Pace Brothers Ltd), and Cecil and Henry Pace personally guaranteed the rent due. The only two hypothecs mentioned in the article were in favour of BICAL and Finindustry.
Did not the BICAL collapse in November 1972?
Continuing… “Pace claims Martone was never Ghidoli’s lawyer, a claim corroborated in part by an affidavit by Nada delle Piane. He also claims the share certificates were forged”.
The Maltese have a saying: the woman of Strait Street is always ready to give out.
If I remember correctly, the documents Mr Pace presented to the legal expert nominated by the Minister of Finance of the time were deemed to be forged, so much so that after his findings the legal expert suggested that the whole dossier should be brought to the attention of the Attorney General.
It is very clear that who wrote this article is either misinformed or else tried to narrate things only according to his dull imagination.
His reference to the note handed by the then Controller Dr Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici to Dr Giovanni Bonello is completely wrong.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici gave this assurance in writing to Dr Bonello in 1973 when Malta and Europe was not yet under controllership. Unfortunately, the company fell under controllership only in November 1974, because it owed money to some of Pace’s Group of companies.
The article’s assertion that in 1973 Dr Mifsud Bonnici instituted a court case to rescind the Excelsior lease agreement with Pabros is nothing but a sheer lie.
It was the company (Malta & Europe Hotels Ltd) which in December 1973 asked for a court ruling that the lease agreement with Pabros be automatically rescinded ipso jure because of the non-payment of the rent due.
Something the court in fact did in 1982.
Regarding the insistence that “… Cecil Pace claims Michele Martone had forged the share transfers from Ghidoli” I can only refer readers to the same police report referred to by Mr Pace and kindly ask them to read for themselves the outcome of the court’s decision and not to abide by what others mention. As journalists they should consult and check and be prepared to produce evidence if necessary.
Later on, in 1989, Michele Martone, as the rightful owner of 51 per cent shareholding had obtained from the Maltese Courts an inhibitory injunction prohibiting the Controller from selling the Excelsior. On the contrary, when this request was made earlier by the Paces it was turned down by the court.
Yes, unfortunately Dr Martone gave in to the Controller’s pleas after he was promised heaven on earth, and given written guarantees, signed also by the then Minister of Finance in the name of the Maltese government that, among other things, his part as shareholder will be invested in a high yielding interest account and this to the satisfaction and after consultation with Martone himself.
And this has just been reconfirmed by the same minister while testifying in the court case Martone instituted against the Controller for not fulfilling the undertaking he made in 1991 in the agreement with Martone.
I repeat, after all this time Dr Martone is unfortunately still waiting for what is rightly his.
Joseph Abela
MSIDA