Saint James Group’s flagship hospital in Sliema. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

A group of US investors agreed to buy Saint James Group’s flagship hospital in Sliema, sources told Times of Malta.

Attempts to confirm the information officially with group chairman Josie Muscat were unsuccessful yesterday. However, in a statement issued in the afternoon, the company implicitly acknowledged that an “imminent sale” was on the cards.

The statement, which rejected reports that the sale was somehow connected to losses on its Libya operations due to unrest there, said “information relevant to the local operations would be released once the deal is finalised”.

The sources said the deal was negotiated by the founder and main shareholder, Dr Muscat, and included the sale of the name Saint James. The group will be renaming its other hospital in Żabbar, which is meant to be replaced with a new facility in Bulebel. The group had bought the Sliema hospital, then called Capua, from AX Holdings in 2002.

In its statement, Saint James Hospital International, which runs the hospitals in Libya and Hungary and is separate from the Maltese operation, denied that losses in North Africa were in any way the cause of this sale.

“The media reports linking the Libya operations with the sale of Saint James (Capua) Hospital are completely fabricated. There isn’t an ounce of truth in them,’’ Saint James Hospital International managing director Jean Claude Muscat said.

“Of course, Saint James Hospital International did face difficult times during the Arab Spring revolution and is facing difficult times today with the current domestic turmoil in Libya. However, this has not placed any burden whatsoever on the local operations of the group.”

Mr Muscat said operations in Libya had resumed, with the necessary precautions having been taken. “Saint James Hospital International has full faith in the Libyan people and is confident that, eventually, the situation will improve.

“We did not throw in the towel as far as Libya is concerned – far from it – that is not in our nature.”