Tumas Group

Tumas Group

Traded as	MSE: STS
Industry	real estate
Founded	July 14, 1987 (1987-07-14)
Founder	Tumas Fenech
Headquarters	Portomaso Business Tower, St Julian's, Malta
Key people	Ray Fenech, Yorgen Fenech
Revenue	€107 million (av. 2010-2020)
Total assets	€454 million
Total equity	€293 million
Website	tumas.com

The Tumas Group is a real estate and development company in Malta, founded in the 1970s by Tumas Fenech (died 1 February 1999). The group is headed by Raymond (Ray) Fenech. Tumas Group is active in online gaming, hospitality and leisure, management, property development, and transport and energy.

Tumas Group is one of Malta's biggest companies, with a registered net equity of €293 million and total assets of €454 million, of which three-quarters consist of property. It averaged an annual €107 million of revenues and €13 million of profits from 2010 to 2020. The group fully owns some 25 companies, and its stocks are traded at the local exchange as Santumas Shareholdings, with a total market cap of €10.6 million. Its most popular brand is Portomaso, a complex of hotel, luxury apartments, restaurants and a casino in Paceville, St Julian's.

The group founder Tumas Fenech died in 1999. The ownership of the company passed to his children: Leli, Ray, Moira, Carmen, Anthony and George. George Fenech, the eldest son, served as Chairman of the group, expanding the family business into hospitality and gaming, until his death in 2014. Raymond Fenech, the youngest son of Tumas, took over the group, with other family members. In 2015 Antony Fenech exited the group and set up his own TUM Invest Group, retaining the automotive and healthcare arms of the Tumas Group. Yorgen Fenech served as CEO of Tumas Group until his indictment in 2019, when Ray Feench took back the reins.

According to Mark Camilleri, the Tumas Group was created and expanded as "a textbook example of how local businesses grew by constant rent-seeking activities with the enabling and the backing of the state", with "political support across both major political parties". Tumas Group, Camilleri states, "donated to politicians and political parties across the board and did not shy away from making cross-political alliances. Its excessive influence and growth brought by irregular means and public resources gave Tumas Fenech and the group a sense of impunity and a sense of outreach with limitless potential."

History

The origins

Tumas Fenech, then a police sergeant in Hamrun, and his sons opened the Easysell company in 1973, with a showroom in Qormi, to import and sell furniture and household items. The company was registered with the considerable capital of 30,000 Maltese lira, and it was soon put under general hypothec, with an overdraft facility by the newly-nationalised Bank of Valletta. Thanks to access to credit, Easysell started operated as a speculator in the property market, signing various deals in the 1970s, including with people linked to the judiciary.

Tumas Fenech could count on the support of then-minister Lorry Sant and of Lino Spiteri, Maltese Labour politician (later deputy head of the Central Banka and Minister of trade) and of Maltese Labour prime minister Dom Mintoff. The closeness between Tumas Fenech and Lino Spiteri costed the latter the nomination in the 1992 Labour leadership race, then won by Alfred Sant, as Evarist Bartolo accused Spiteri of corruption.

Expansion in the hotel market

In the 1980s, Tumas Fenech expands in the hotel market, buying the Dolmen and the Topaz hotels in Buġibba. In 1986, for 120,000 Maltese lira, Tumas Fenech buys the Spinola Development Company. This had been founded by British and American investors to bring the Hilton to Malta; the company had obtained from the Nationalist government a public lease of 990 liri per year, for 150 years, for a 31-acres strip of public land in Paceville, where it had built a Hilton hotel.

In 1996, the new Nationalist government extended the Spinola land lease to Tumas Group until 2114, retaining the same yearly payment, and the company was allowed to use the land for other uses than tourism. The company finally bought back the lease in 2006 for sole 800,000 Maltese lira (€1.8 million)

The Portomaso land grab was contested by left-wing activists, including Moviment Graffitti, who staged a hunger strike. The ensuing investigation by Ombudsman Joe Sammut reprimanded the government's failure “to use its negotiating powers to maximise the benefits to be derived from the deal”. Legislation was later amended, obliging the government to seek the Parliament's consent before selling public land for private interests.

In March 2024, Tumas Group passed the cap of 1,000 hotel rooms in Malta, with the opening of his third Hilton hotel.

Foray into public transport

From July 2011 until 2014, Tumas Group was minority shareholder (33%), together with Arriva, of a ten-year concession to operate all scheduled bus services on Malta and Gozo. Following years of losses, on 1 January 2014 Arriva ceased operations in Malta, with the services nationalised by the government as Malta Public Transport.

Expansion in the energy sector

The Group's turnover for 2011 was in excess of €112 million.

After 2013, with the Labour government led by Joseph Muscat, the Tumas group (at that point led by Tumas' son George Fenech and grandson Yorgen Fenech) expanded in the energy sector. Tumas group banded together with Michael Apap Bologna and Gasan Group to found ElectroGas Malta (EGM) as a consortium that also included Siemens Project Ventures GmbH and Socar Trading SA, aimed to build a €510 million new gas-powered plant in Delimara, which would produce electricity by burning liquified gas (LNG) imported from Azerbaijan. Electrogas was contracted to sell electricity and LNG to Enemalta for 18 years, started in 2015. The government provided Electrogas with an indefinite government guarantee, committing to cover its losses in case of failure to make a profit. The first batch of LNG was bought by Electrogas from SOCAR for $113 million and sold by them to Enemalta for $153 million, with further deliveries generating similar profits, however Electrogas recorded continued unexplained losses, with -€23 million in 2017. Daphne Caruana Galizia was investigating the Electrogas scheme when she was murdered on 16 October 2017.

The Auditor General's enquiry into the 2013 tender concluded that the tender was a “premeditated” effort to award the contract to Electrogas and that Electrogas' electricity price was significantly higher than that bought over the interconnector.

Yorgen Fenech resigned from director of Tumas Group and of Electrogas in 2019. His uncle Ray Fenech took over control of the group. On 25 November 2019 Tumas Group said that allegations linking Fenech to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia were "alien to the Tumas Group's values".

Companies

Property development

• Crystal Ship Portomaso
• Mill Street complex, Qormi
• Qormi Construction
• Ta' Monita Estates
• Tas-Sellum Residence
• The Laguna Portomaso
• The Portomaso Business Tower
• The Quad Central, Mriehel

Hospitality and leisure

• Amazonia Beach Lido
• Blue Elephant
• Dolmen Resort Hotel, Qawra
• Hilton Evian-les-Bains
• Hilton Malta, in Portomaso Tower
• Hilton Malta Conference Centre
• Oracle Conference Centre
• Twenty Two Club

Gaming

• Portomaso Casino, opened July 2006
• Oracle Casino, opened 1998 within Dolmen Hotel Resort, Qawra
• Tumas Gaming, managing Bestplay outlets across Malta since 2012.

Energy and Transports

See also: 2019_Malta_political_crisis § ElectroGas_Malta

• Electrogas: Tumas Group holds 35.16% shares of GEM Holdings which owns 33.34% of Electrogas.
• Valletta Gateway Terminal

From July 2011 until 2014, Tumas Group was the minority shareholder (33%), together with Arriva, of a ten-year concession to operate all scheduled bus services on Malta and Gozo. Following years of losses, on 1 January 2014 Arriva ceased operations in Malta, with the services nationalised by the Maltese government as Malta Public Transport.

Management

• Tumas Fenech Foundation for Education in Journalism, set up by George Fenech in the 2000s, sponsors a yearly Gold Award for distinguished press members.
• Tumas investments, finance company since 2000