Farsons appears to be involved in another takeover bid

By Kurt Sansone
Bigger seems to be the buzzword for the Farsons Group. After taking over Guido Vella Cash & Carry - a wines and spirits business concern in Qormi - in November last year, the Farsons Group seems to have set its eyes on another import company.
Well-founded speculation among employees of Qormi-based Law Quintano Ltd has it that Farsons is engaged in discussions with the import company in a take-over bid.
Contacted by The Malta Financial and Business Times yesterday, officials from both companies refused to comment on the speculation. Norman Aquilina, a director at Law Quintano said "at this stage" there was "no comment to make."
The reply from Farsons was less enigmatic with the deputy to the chief executive-marketing, Anthony J. Tabone saying it was not company policy "to comment on pure speculation on the market-place."
Law Quintano Co. Ltd belongs to Norman Zammit, a former Malta Development Corporation chairman, who was also implicated in the theft of precious art objects in the late nineties and early 2000. According to the Malta Registry of Companies Law Quintano Co. Ltd is a shareholder in Law Quintano Food Service Ltd and Law Quintano Holdings Ltd.
The company imports among other food stuffs the renowned Italian dairy brand, Danone and biscuit brand Jakobs.
Farsons’ official announcement of the take over of Guido Vella Cash & Carry on 18 November has had little impact on trading in Farsons shares on the Malta Stock Exchange. The deal had gone through after it was cleared by the Office of Fair Trading. The business concern is being administered as a separate entity alongside Farsons’ other subsidiary companies.
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