Response to Plaza share offer "very encouraging"

by Anthony Manduca

The response to the share offer by Plaza Centres plc, which opened yesterday, is very encouraging, according to Julian Zammit, the Plaza's managing director. The Plaza, Malta's leading shopping complex, announced its decision to go public last week. Mr Zammit told The Malta Business Weekly: "We are very happy with the response so far which is very encouraging indeed and the indications so far is that we will be oversubscribed."

The Plaza and some of its existing shareholders issued a combined offering of 3,250,000 shares to the public at 88 cents per share. During the launch of the combined offering last week company chairman Albert Mizzi said the proceeds from the issue of the shares would be used to substantially eliminate the company's long-term bank borrowings, "thus creating a solid platform from which to pursue further growth". The Plaza is expected to venture into other similar projects in the near future.

Analysts believe the positive response to the Plaza offer is proof that the public is hungry for investment opportunities.