MIDI plc has completed the sale of the €5.5 million T15 Building at Tigné Point, with the proceeds set to be used towards the redemption of the company's €50 million bond due next month.
In a company announcement, MIDI confirmed that the final deed of sale was executed with The 540 Hub Ltd following a promise of sale and purchase agreement signed in February.
The agreement, signed with The 540 Hub Ltd, covers the remaining term of the temporary utile-dominium linked to the original 99-year emphyteusis granted by the Maltese Government in June 2000. The T15 Building is currently under construction and had secured planning permission last year as an office block.
It is located between the The Point Shopping Centre and the public garden. LOM architecture & design, the designers of the building, previously said that the development will offer "1,400 sqm of flexible space across 4 floors, with retail & F+B at ground level opening onto the new public realm. Its stepped form creates spacious terraces for office tenants, while a landscaped roof terrace serves as a fifth elevation from surrounding apartments."
The transaction concerns the temporary utile-dominium of the T15 Building, which is currently under construction at Tigné Point in Sliema. The property forms part of the land originally granted to MIDI by the Government of Malta under a 99-year temporary emphyteusis agreement signed in 2000.
MIDI noted that the building remains subject to its proportional share of the annual ground rent payable to the Government, as well as any rights, obligations and conditions arising from the original emphyteutical deed.
The company said the net proceeds from the sale will be applied towards the redemption of its €50 million bond, which is due in July 2026.
The background
In 2000, MIDI plc had been granted a 99-year Emphyteutical Concession over Manoel Island and Tigné Point for mixed-use development, together with the right to develop and operate a yachting centre.
The company, in a Circular that had been provided to shareholders, had said that the project was originally required to be substantially completed by 31 March 2023, with a three-year cure period until 31 March 2026.
MIDI said that the deed expressly provided for automatic extensions of the completion date where delays arose from circumstances beyond the parties' control, and MIDI contends that the various delays encountered resulted in such automatic extensions.
It said that the proposed development of Manoel Island suffered a number of unforeseen setbacks which it said were outside the Company's control, falling into three broad categories: delays in the issuance of development permits and authorisations; delays arising from archaeological discoveries requiring the redesign of the development; and delays arising from protracted administrative and appellate processes initiated by third parties.
The company holds that the cumulative effect of these delays is the basis for the company's position that the correct completion date under the Deed had been automatically extended by at least 10 years as at June 2025.
Public calls for Manoel Island to be returned to the public and opened as a national park gained steam, and a petition to have the site returned to the public garnered around 29,000 signatures.
In June 2025, the Government withdrew its support for the Manoel Island project and publicly declared its intention to convert the island into a national park.
MIDI said that given this change of stance, pursuing development through litigation alone would have been an “inadequate and ultimately futile strategy, regardless of the merits of the Company's legal position, as a development of this scale and complexity cannot succeed without the active support of Government at every level.”
In its circular, MIDI told shareholders that it regarded the Company's legal position on the extension point as a strong one, supported by the terms of the Deed.
“The decision not to litigate was made on practical and financial grounds alone –specifically, the impossibility of obtaining a judgment within the Bond redemption timeframe – and not because of any weakness in the Company's legal case. The Company's obligations to its bondholders crystallise on 27th July 2026, and no Maltese court proceedings of the nature required to challenge a threatened rescission of an emphyteutical concession could realistically be concluded within such a timeframe. The judgment would have arrived too late to prevent insolvency.”
MIDI had told shareholders that its Board regards the reimbursement amount as inadequate but, given the absence of any viable alternative, reluctantly accepts it in the circumstances.
