€22 million aviation investment still on the drawing board

A €22 million investment by a company specialising in aircraft ‘cosmetics’ announced last May has failed to materialise so far, though the Netherlands-based Aviation Cosmetics says its plans have only been delayed. The company, which specialises in spraying commercial aircraft, is meant to move from Eindhoven to the aviation park in Safi, alongside Lufthansa Technik and SR Technics, with a specialised facility that would employ 80 people. The investment was announced in May, during the same ceremony that officially launched the aviation cluster at Safi. Yet since the signing, there have been few concrete developments. A local subsidiary company, Aviation Cosmetics Malta, was set up with the bare minimum of share capital and the company has so far not honoured its commitments to pay Malta Enterprise the yearly ground rent of €250,000 and a €4million guarantee, sources have told The Sunday Times. When asked to confirm that the company had not honoured its contract, Malta Enterprise said it was not “at liberty to discuss commercially sensitive matters” but added that the corporation was “in talks” with Aviation Cosmetics about the project’s implementation. “Since May 2012, Aviation...