Situation At Malta Stock Exchange Gives Cause For Concern

by Carla Johnson, Investors Offshore.com

19 October 2001

The Maltese College of Stockbroking Firms and the Council of the Malta Stock Exchange are set to meet today to discuss the future of the exchange, and to look at ways in which to instill confidence in the country's investors again, following recent events.

Although obviously affected by the global situation, the Malta Stock Exchange is said to have been performing poorly for a long time, and last week the majority of shares in listed companies continued to freefall, prompting angry questions from investors and brokers.

In an interview with the Malta Business Weekly, the Chairman of the College of Stockbroking Firms, Ivan Burridge, admitted that the situation was very worrying, and warned that the exchange 'may go into a depression'. Speaking on Tuesday, he cautioned that in the eyes of investors, the Malta Stock Exchange had become a place where you lose money. The stock exchange desperately needs more listings, but needless to say, Maltese and foreign companies have not been encouraged by the recent investment climate in the country, and have stayed away in droves.

Mr Burridge said that he laid part of the blame for the decline in activity at the feet of the Maltese government, who recently introduced a tax on locally listed collective investment schemes. He described it to the MBW as: 'a measure which we feel to have been short-sighted and which has, without any doubt, put a dent into what, in spite of early success, is still very much a fledgling market.'

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