The Labour government has issued €921 million in guarantees, including €75.25 million to the Malta Freeport Corpporation and €360 million to Electrogas since coming to power in March 2013,
Finance Minister Edward Scicluna told Chris Said (PN) the following guarantees were issued: Enemalta (€179.9 million); Malta Freeport Corporation: ($80 millio); Malta Transport Malta: (€8 million); Enemed: (€8 million); Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools: (€133.2 million); Grand Harbour Regeneration Corportation: (€4.5 million); Malta Enterprise: (€5.5 million); Malta Government Investments: (€8 million); Malta Industrial Parks Ltd: (€46.15 million); Malta Investment Management: (€8 million); Petromal: (€85 million); Public Broadcasting: (€0.33 million) and Electrogas: (€360 million).
Two guarantees to Enemalta, amounting to €93.9 million, and those to the Malta Freeport Corporation have since been cancelled.
The minister said the guarantees to Malta Transport were needed to secure a loan facility to finance its capital expenditure and secure banking facilities to cover working capital requirements.
Guarantees of €66 million was given to Enemalta to finance the interconnector project.
A guarantee of €85 million was issued to Petromal to finance the take-over Enemalta’s Petroleum Division. The guarantee to PBS was to cover the television rights to screen the Champions and Europa football league matches.