Mediterranean Maritime Hub (MMH) Finance plc has sought to reassure the market that its main operating company remains “fully operational” amid mounting pressure over a looming €15 million bond repayment and increasingly frantic negotiations to avoid a default.

In a company announcement issued Monday, MMH referred to ongoing talks with a “leading financial institution” and unnamed prospective investors, echoing earlier statements made in April. The company confirmed that the negotiations are still in progress but provided no new detail about their status or timeline.

The latest statement follows a weekend report by The Shift claiming that MMH’s chairman, Paul Abela, is in talks with major developers to sell stakes in the company’s 65-year concession at the former Malta Shipbuilding site in Marsa. According to the report, developers including Bonnici Group, GAP, and F. Schembri & Sons are being courted to inject capital in exchange for a share of the site — potentially moving MMH closer to defaulting on its bond unless a deal is reached.

MMH has been under growing scrutiny since April, when it admitted it would miss the end-of-month deadline for publishing its 2024 financial statements. The delay is expected to trigger a suspension of its bonds from trading on the Malta Stock Exchange and has renewed fears of a potential default when the bond matures in October 2026.

In its last set of audited accounts (AFS 2023), MMH’s auditors flagged “material uncertainty” over the company’s ability to meet its debt obligations. The €15 million bond, issued in 2016 to support its maritime hub operations, was tied to ambitious plans for oil and gas servicing, which ultimately failed to materialise.

Since then, MMH has shifted focus to monetising the Marsa site through unrelated commercial activities — including event hosting and television production — which critics argue fall outside the scope of the original concession agreement.

Government involvement in any prospective deal remains unclear. Reports suggest that Prime Minister Robert Abela has been briefed by developers, but the state has so far resisted calls to amend the concession’s terms, which stipulate its use for maritime-related industries.

In its latest communication, MMH reiterated that it would “carry on informing the market as and when necessary,” but did not address concerns over bondholder losses or ongoing negotiations with prospective new investors.

Retail investors — a key demographic in Malta’s small but growing corporate bond market — now face the very real prospect of a major bond failure unless a capital injection materialises in the months ahead.

The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) is expected to monitor developments closely. A default at MMH could mark one of the most significant reputational hits to Malta’s capital markets in recent years, with broader implications for regulatory trust and retail investor confidence.