Looking at the composition of the Board of Directors on some of the listed firms brings to mind the Maltese proverb: “Don’t ask about whom you know” or something along those lines.

Interestingly, despite both political parties and their hangers-on espousing seemingly different political currents, when it comes to the feeding trough, we have not seen any l-orizzont or It-Torċa or Kullħadd (or for that matter yours and other left leaning newspapers) articles, editorials or a spate of letters denouncing the hefty increase in directors’ emoluments which in some cases are above, proportionally, what the administration paid itself in increases.

The common man, at least in the last budget, did get the equivalent of a nofs lira, but many shareholders just suffer frustration seeing that Board Directors experience no reduction in honoraria despite not managing to secure sufficient returns for a dividend payout.

Amazingly, in an era keen on globalisation, even those advocating the globalisation of Maltese listed firms, some relevant information, which would inform shareholders better on how to regard the self-praise by listed firms functionaries in the annual report and financial statements, is reminiscent of Fidel Castro’s style. For example, Moody recently downgraded Fidelity Investments credit rating senior debt from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ reflecting relative weak performance of Fidelity Equity Funds and resulting loss in market share. Over the past three years, 43 of Fidelity’s 134 stock funds are trailing S & P 500. Among others, Fidelity Blue Chip Value Fund and Fidelity Magellan Fund rank in the bottom 10 per cent of their peer group over five years. Yet has any whisper of this made it yet in Maltese print? (Regretfully, Gozo boasts no current affairs periodical apart from the Diocese’s monthly ‘Il-Ħajja f’Għawdex’ not exactly at the forefront of papal social encyclicals economic analysis).

G. Bonett

MARSALFORN