The Brazilian company at the centre of political controversy has shut down and is in the process of leaving Malta, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech confirmed yesterday.
The reply came a week after Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said during a leaders’ debate on current affairs programme Xarabank that the company had transferred its head office to Malta and was operating.
The issue was raised after Opposition leader Joseph Muscat questioned the fate of the Brazilian company, the arrival of which was announced by the Prime Minister during a debate organised by The Times last February.
The Times revealed last Wednesday that the company was Odebrecht Solutions, which specialises in construction management.
It was registered with the Malta Financial Services Authority in May and employed four people at its office at the Plaza Commercial Centre.
Asked about the company following a visit to pharmaceutical firm Arrow Pharm yesterday morning, Mr Fenech admitted that the company – which he did not name – had moved to Malta during the Libya crisis but had since ceased operations.
“During the Libya crisis many companies decided to operate from Malta. This company decided to start operating from Malta because it had good prospects to continue its operations from Libya.
“At one point it employed 35 people but the situation in Libya did not improve so the company decided to wind down its operations in Malta,” he said.
Mr Fenech made the statement as he was being pressed to reveal the investment undertaken by Odebrecht in Malta.
“The Opposition has spun this issue beyond proportion,” he told a Labour media journalist.
Mr Fenech said the Government had attracted the registration of 10,000 new companies to Malta since 2008, 55 per cent of which were foreign.
Mr Fenech added in a statement later that the Government had generated €350 million in investment.
At Arrow Pharm, Dr Gonzi took questions from employees during a question-and-answer session in the company’s staff canteen. Journalists were only allowed to sit in for the first two questions.
During his visit, Dr Gonzi toured the company’s new investment of $4 million in new offices and laboratories. It was also planning on investing a further $2 million to develop its manufacturing lines before rolling them out to commercial use.
Since 2008, the company has invested over $30 million in its Malta operations which, following the takeover of Actavis by its parent company Watson, is now the third largest pharmaceutical manufacturing company in the world. It employs 323 people.
The controversy surrounding the Brazilian firm has inspired the latest Labour Party billboard, which features Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi sporting a Brazil football T-shirt numbered 0, which according to the PL, reflects Dr Gonzi’s credibility.
Labour said the Prime Minister had scored an own goal when he tried to gain political mileage out of the issue.