Too early to speak about shipyard bids - Tonio Fenech

The Finance Minister yesterday said it is too early to say whether or not the bids for the shipyards meet the government's expectations.

"We have not yet drawn up a preliminary shortlist of bidders and have not even started negotiating with the bidders. How can anyone at this stage conclude that the bids do not meet our expectations," the minister said yesterday.

He was asked to react to a report carried in Maltatoday which said that none of the 14 offers made for the purchase of the shipyards met the government's expectations.

"The 14 offers, reportedly too low to even consider selling, have effectively stalled the timing for the privatisation process," the newspaper reported.

But the minister insisted that it is too early to reach any conclusions. He also said, however, that the government's criteria for choosing the winning bid are not linked to the financial offer but primarily take into account the investment projections being made and the wider benefit for the economy and employment.

"If the money was the bottom line we would have simply sold off the yards for property development," he said.

Asked why the ministry had not given a comment to the newspaper when asked for it, he said: "It is our policy not to comment when a privatisation process is still ongoing but it seems that the no comment was used to fuel speculation."