The local parent company behind Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) has failed to file any audited accounts since its incorporation in 2014, official records show.
Bluestone Investments Malta Limited, should have filed its audited accounts by the end of 2016 at the very latest, a financial expert who spoke to this paper said.
Malta Financial Services Authority records show that Bluestone Investments Malta Ltd was incorporated in December 2014 and is owned by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Bluestone Investments Malta owns several other companies which are linked to VGH’s operations. MFSA records show that these companies, too, have failed to file any audited accounts.
By law, companies must keep proper accounting records and submit annual accounts to the MFSA’s company registrar.
Bluestone Investments Malta Ltd was incorporated in December 2014 and is owned by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands
VGH, which struck a controversial deal to sell the €2 billion concession to run three public hospitals in Malta to an American company, did not reply to questions about its failure to file any accounts.
The company, which has no track record in healthcare, struggled to meet its contractual obligations after finding it difficult to raise financing for the project.
Opposition leader Adrian Delia has accused the government of deliberately engineering the deal with Vitals for it to fail.
Vitals had promised to invest over €200 million in the project but little is known about how much they actually put into the hospitals. In a statement in December, it attributed the lack of progress on the renovation of the three hospitals to Planning Authority permit processing delays.
Health Minister Chris Fearne, who has sought to distance himself from the deal negotiated by his predecessor, Konrad Mizzi, admitted in Parliament Vitals had “faced problems”.
“We told Vitals to speed up the works or find a solution. Their solution was to sell off the shares to Steward Healthcare. We saw that this further strengthened the deal, we performed our due diligence, they have a huge track record, and we are confident,” Mr Fearne said.
The Sunday Times of Malta reported last month the government sold the contents of the three hospitals to Vitals for just €1.
The Maltese government also bound itself contractually to pay the concessionaire €80 million so it would get back the title over the land and the Karin Grech and Gozo General hospital buildings.
The Vitals investors signed a memorandum of understanding with Malta Enterprise several months before the request for proposals for the concession was published.
Malta Enterprise is resisting a request made by this paper in terms of the Freedom of Information Act to divulge the contents of the memorandum.