The AX Group is shortly expected to give details of its offer to Suncrest shareholders, who have the option of taking cash at the last traded price of Lm0.267 (October 30) or converting them to new 10-year bonds with early repayment options issued by AX iNvestments. The coupon rate will be 6.7 per cent. The offer is expected to raise LM5 million, Lm 4.16 million of which will go to AX Holdings (Lm1.37 million will be directed to projects), with the balance to go towards Capua Palace which generates over LM 150,000a year in rental income, which would go towards the bind payment.

After four years of hard work, the new five-star hotel, The Palace, right next door to The Victoria Hotel in Sliema, is in its final structural works and will open its doors next summer. The Palace Hotel, an Lm 9 million investment, will “repeat the success of the Victoria retaining its individuality and uniqueness, but stressing service, quality and location. Claire Xuereb, general manager of The Victoria hotel, told The Sunday Times on Tuesday.

As Prospective property sellers are weighing the impact of the new property tax regime, the market has already displayed the first signs of an anticipated increase in prices. “Prospective property sellers are adopting a wait and see approach as they wait for the government’s next move,” Michael de Maria, general manager of Cassar and Cooper real estate Ltd told Business today.

Anglu Xuereb is not a happy man. His ling drawn battle to develop a golf course in land-scarce Malta at tal-Virtu’. in Rabat, took 10 years for him to be told, ‘no, sorry the golf course is not on.” One year later a government decides to shortlist its own site – forget the Malta Environment and Planning Authority – offers to pay for the environmental impact assessment and hey, presto!

During a television programme in 1994, Angelo Xuereb attracted criticism from many different quarters because he voiced his concern that the planning authority, today restyled to MEPA, would slow down the economy. Today, a developer, businessman and indeed an individual, seems to be of the same opinion.