A delegation from FinanceMalta, including governor John Huber, recently participated in the two-day Fifth Global Family Office Investment Summit which was held on March 13 and 14 at the Four Seasons Resort Jumeirah Beach, Dubai UAE.
The summit, which was organised by the Ritossa Family Office, brought together the world’s leading experts geared towards identifying actionable strategies for generating returns in a low-rate, high volatility market. Facilitated by family offices, the summit provided two days of private peer-to-peer conversation, networking, and cross-border thought leadership, designed to make one think about what to look out for, how one should invest, and why.
Speaking about FinanceMalta’s participation in this event, chairman Kenneth Farrugia said: “Our participation in this summit forms part of our commitment to meet and exchange views on what Malta has to offer to affluent family offices and wealth managers. Furthermore, our involvement in events in the Middle East is in line with our drive to venture into new markets outside the European Union.
This event was the fifth in the global series covering Dubai, Monaco, and Miami – and was the third event in Dubai.
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Fifth global family office investment summit in Dubai
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Watch: Hibs and Luxol eye more silverware
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Watch: Butland to play in goal for England against Italy
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Special donation to markCaritas Malta anniversary
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Passion plays
To celebrate its 20th anniversary, the Drama Pageant Group of Qormi (St Sebastian), in collaboration with the local council, will be staging a Passion play with a difference.
Kont Jien (It was me) is written by Doris Zammit, a veteran broadcaster and actress, and directed by Sebastian Aquilina, the group’s chairman. This two-and-a-half-hour play – a spectacle of light and costumes – will be performed on the church parvis.
The play will be performed today and tomorrow at 8pm at St Sebatian parish church, Qormi. For tickets, call 9927 1027 or 7909 2963. Tickets can also be bought from the church parvis prior to the performance.
The Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl Foundation is staging a Passion play, Ma Niċħdek Qatt (I will never deny you), at the Corradino Correctional Facility, Kordin.
The play, written by a resident, features other residents as actors. The original score is by Maria Buttigieg Brooks, who every year helps set up this play.
Other participants include Christabelle Scerri, Lorna Fiorini, Sebastian Calleja and Glen Callus.
Jason Zerafa will be directing.
The play, which debuted yesterday, will be staged today and tomorrow at 5.30pm and 6.45pm; on Maundy Thursday at 10am, 5.30pm...
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Watch: 'You can run but you can't hide' - Ferris tells government
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Puzzling
Reading about Lawrence Cutajar’s “puzzlement” on the calls for his resignation, I am sure the Police Commissioner remembers when people were seen leaving a bank in Ta’ Xbiex at night carrying a suitcase and he knew about this.
I think Cutajar did not remember about this when he boasted of his “track record”.
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Landing slot sales
Reference is made to the article entitled ‘Commission questions Air Malta deal on slots’ (March 26).
The article misleadingly quotes Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi as saying that (the sale of the slots) “…was a way of both protecting Air Malta and giving it the necessary capital to grow”. It is to be clarified that the minister never made that statement and was not even present at the Sunday event referred to in the article and, therefore, the statement is completely deceptive.
Any queries made by the European Commission services on the sale of these Air Malta slots to Malta Air Travel Ltd have been duly answered by the Maltese authorities who have also provided all requested documentation. This is a normal question-and-answer iterative process between the Maltese authorities and the Commission services on transactions or projects of such magnitude that involve government assets.
The government’s main objective is of ensuring that these slots remain under its sole control at all times, given their significant commercial and financial value.
As already publicly stated, the value of Air Malta’s Heathrow and Gatwick airport slots has been determined by an independent international...
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GSK buys out Novartis in $13 billion consumer healthcare shake-up
GlaxoSmithKline is buying Novartis out of their consumer healthcare joint venture for $13 billion, taking full control ofproducts including Sensodyne toothpaste, Panadol headache tablets and muscle gel Voltaren.
GSK’s biggest move since Emma Walmsley became chief executive last year follows the British drugmaker’s decision last week to quit the race to buy Pfizer’s consumer healthcare business, endangering an auction the US company hoped would bring in as much as $20 billion.
Consumer remedies sold over the counter have lower margins than prescription drugs but they are typically very well known and durable brands with loyal customers.
“The proposed transaction addresses one of our key capital allocation priorities and will allow GSK shareholders to capture the full value of one of the world’s leading consumer healthcare businesses,” Walmsley said in a statement yesterday.
Although some pharmaceuticals groups have been keen to hold consumer care products, intense price competition online, mainly from Amazon as well as cheaper store-brand products, have led others to doubt their stable returns longer term.
The British group’s shares jumped 4.5 per cent, outperforming a 1.8 per...
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Announcements - March 28, 2018
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Antibiotics may increase chances of serious viral infection
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The thin end of the wedge? - Tonio Borg
The Gender-Based Violence and Domestic Violence Bill purports to incorporate the Istanbul Convention on Domestic Violence into our laws.
In fact, it does more than that. It amends the previous Domestic Violence Act of 2006, piloted by former minister Dolores Cristina, and removes from the definition of household member any previous reference to “the child conceived but yet unborn” of any person living with another in a marriage or extramarital relationship.
The Life Network and other non-governmental organisations have rightly objected to this deletion. Deleting any reference to the unborn child means that the beneficial effects of the new Bill cannot be applied to the unborn. This includes drafting and implementing an action plan, as required by the Bill, to be monitored by a new commission regarding domestic violence.
So, apart from the conceptual objections to the removal of a reference to the unborn child, there are also practical implications, since the deletion would diminish the protection even as regards prevention, which existed under the 2006 Act.
I am not saying that the deletion of any reference to the unborn child renders abortion legal in Malta.
Abortion remains a...
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Bizarre development decisions
Together with NGOs, the Church Environment Commission continues to turn the spotlight on the defects, deficiencies and downright destruction of the environment by an unthinking government and pusillanimous ‘regulators’.
In its latest statement, the Church Environment Commission took aim at decisions relating to the Fortina Hotel development, in Sliema, Mercury House, in Paceville and the Villa Rosa mega-project at St George’s Bay, where developers’ greed and regulators’ weaknesses leave their mark on the environment.
The commission questioned the “muscle” of entities like the Environment and Resources Authority and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage (which has consistently been starved of sufficient manpower resources). It warned that until these regulators were given a veto on planning issues, the country would continue to experience decisions “which do not give greater weight to the common good”.
The Fortina Project, which includes an extra five floors on the 17-storey tower and a new 15-storey residential complex, was exempted from the need for an environmental impact assessment after the ERA concluded, incredibly, that the development would not have the kind of adverse...
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Today's front pages - March 28, 2018
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China says N.Korea pledges denuclearisation during friendly visit
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Angry Birds maker Rovio cuts boardroom pay after profit warning
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Italian bookseller 'switched €1,909 Harry Potter book for another novel'
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Three hurt as car crashes into gate in Għaxaq
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Facebook's Zuckerberg to testify before US Congress - source
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Pilatus Bank incident 'embarrassing', says European Central Bank supervisor
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