Paying out dividends

I found John Consiglio’s article Are Foreign Buyers Good? (The Times Business, December 1) a good “corporate governance” wake-up call to local shareholders.

If I may just add a one- or two-liner (pun intended), I found it rather stiff that Malta International Airport (for which the state received millions of euros when it sold off its shareholding) is acting as a virtual “social benefit agency” to its client airlines by eliminating fees for several months, fees out of which it generated part of its profit to defray its costs and pay out a meagre dividend to shareholders.

Small equity holders include hundreds if not thousands who due to the higher cost of living have for years not stepped on an airplane but who do not even get free parking in winter months at this facility, which they part-own. Some justice to the small shareholder!

Would one need to be a guru to see in this fee elimination a ploy to shore up the national airline and from which othervisitor airlines stand to hand­somely benefit? The only empty cap is being held by the small shareholders who are not in line for any internal perks or increased pay from promo-tions to the parent company head office. It seems that horse trading is done best in connection with large flat open spaces and not limited to Marsa.