Hili Properties plc is set to be delisted from the Malta Stock Exchange after it obtained shareholders' approval for the move in an Extraordinary General Meeting held this week.

The company is wasting no time, already filing the necessary paperwork with the Malta Financial Services Authority as it seeks to go private less than five years after it first offered its shares to the public.

The move is the culmination of a controversial year-long process leaving many shareholders with a bitter after-taste.

Since its IPO in late 2021, Hili Properties stock performed below expectations, languishing between €0.18 and €0.22 per share for most of 2023 and 2024 – well below the initial price of €0.27 per share.

Majority shareholder Hili Ventures’ offer to buy back the shares for €0.24 per share, made in February 2025, was therefore met with mixed reactions.

For those who bought into the company over the preceding two years, the offer was seen as an easy and profitable way to sell their stake.

Among investors in its IPO, however, the offer proved contentious.

One shareholder, writing in to the Malta Association of Small Shareholders (MASS), said: “Shareholders who just three years ago invested their hard-earned cash into Hili Properties plc are feeling shortchanged by the company’s recent announcement that it is offering a voluntary buyback of its listed shares. They are complaining that the shares the company sold for €0.27 per share are now being asked to be sold back for €0.24 per share.”

The subsequent Hili Properties AGM was a stormy affair, with insults reportedly hurled at the Board of Directors.

Hili Ventures was ultimately unsuccessful in its initial attempt to gain control of over 90 per cent of shares, a crucial threshold in its bid to take Hili Properties private.

However, it continued to build its position and managed to cross the threshold in January 2026.

Although the new offer price of €0.27 share was not announced officially, Hili Properties’ stock jumped to that price on 18th February and has remained at that level ever since.

The revised offering – effectively rewarding holdouts who refused the initial offer – was received well, with the number of shares traded over just two days amounting to 5.8 per cent of the total shares in issue.

The small number of shareholders who have not yet sold their shares to Hili Ventures are invited to accept the same offer, which will remain valid until Hili Properties is delisted from the Malta Stock Exchange. After that point, Hili Ventures reserves the right to revise the terms of the offer, including the price per share.