Preferred bidders for shipbuilding yard, yacht yard, announced

The Valletta Gateway Terminal Consortium has been selected as the Preferred Bidder for the Marsa Shipbuilding and Steel Fabrication facility while the Manoel Island Yacht Yard Consortium has been selected as the preferred bidder for the Manoel Island Yacht Repair facility, it was officially announced this afternoon.

The Privatisation Unit has advised bidders of the decision and will proceed to open negotiations with these bidders.

Valletta Gateway Terminal currently operates cargo facilities at Grand Harbour.

The decisions are the first to have been announced since the call for bidding for the facilities of Malta Shipyards.

A total of 14 submissions were made, of which three were for the ship repair facilities, five for Malta Superyachts, three for the shipbuilding facilities and three for Manoel Island Yacht Yard.

The offers were examined by the Privatisation Unit and the Prime Minister had declared that the government was not satisfied with some of the offers made.

Earlier this week it was reported that the government had asked the bidders for the ship repair facilities to revise their offers.

The process for the privatisation of the shipyards started in the middle of last year and included an early retirement scheme which was taken up by almost all the workers at Malta Shipyards.