A Brazilian company at the centre of political controversy is winding down its four-man operation just six months after opening shop in Sliema.
The company was mentioned but not named during a debate last Friday between Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Labour leader Joseph Muscat.
Industry sources told The Times the company described by Dr Gonzi as a major Brazilian investment was Odebrecht Solutions. It was registered with the Malta Financial Services Authority in May and employed four people at its office at the Plaza Commercial Centre.
The registered address of the company is that of a Maltese firm based in Mrieħel that provides corporate services to international clients.
But the company, a subsidiary of a large Brazilian construction and engineering firm, has previous links to Malta. Two sister companies were registered here in 2007 – Odebrecht Construction Malta Ltd and Odebrecht Engineering and Construction Ltd.
The Malta operations, more akin to shell companies, will be wound down after a change in the group’s management structure, the sources said, even though they will probably retain their Malta address.
Dr Gonzi had first mentioned the arrival of the Brazilian company without naming it in February during a debate with Dr Muscat that was organised by The Times.
The Prime Minister had described it as “a very big company” that got to know about the island at the height of the Libya crisis when it evacuated its workers through Malta.
No further information was given in the ensuing months until the Xarabank debate on Friday, when Dr Muscat asked what had happened to the Brazilian company that was supposed to create jobs.
The Prime Minister responded, saying the company had transferred its head office to Malta and was already operating.
However, when Dr Gonzi was asked by this newspaper a day after the debate to name the company and how many people it employed, he declined to comment.
He again declined to name the company yesterday while visiting the Farsons brewery in Mrieħel, though he said it was a construction services company with an office in Sliema.
He then asked the media to treat the matter with prudence and not to embroil foreign investors in political controversy.
Attempts to contact the Malta office of Odebrecht Solutions yesterday proved futile.
However, the mother company Norberto Odebrecht has had its fair share of controversies in South America.
According to Transparency International, a global agency that fights corruption, Odebrecht is one of two Brazilian companies that are being investigated over illicit payments to secure public contracts.