Portelli’s Gozitan clan falling apart as businessmen clash

The powerful business alliance between Joseph Portelli, Mark Agius, known as Ta’ Dirjanu, and Daniel Refalo is showing increasingly clear signs of fracture, with departures from their concrete business accompanied by a bitter court dispute over a €700,000 property deal.

The Shift is informed that relations between the three developers, whose overlapping companies have become a dominant force in Malta’s construction sector, have deteriorated sharply. Sources familiar with their dealings describe the once-close partners as barely on speaking terms.

Two developments have brought those tensions into public view.

Last week, The Shift revealed that Portelli and Refalo had withdrawn from Prax Concrete, which operates an illegal batching plant in Kerċem, leaving Agius in control.

Court documents now reveal a separate clash between companies represented by Refalo and Agius, with each side blaming the other for a failed property transaction.

The documents, seen by The Shift, expose a dispute extending beyond a straightforward sale, with contractual arrangements involving dividends from Excel Investments, financing through another company and a linked acquisition in St Julian’s.

From business partners to courtroom opponents

In a sworn application filed on 26 June 2026, DTX Properties Limited, represented by Refalo, asked the Gozo court to compel Blue Clay Hotels Limited, whose directors include Agius, to complete the sale of a house in Pjazza Vittorja, Xagħra.

The companies signed a €700,000 promise of sale on 25 June 2025 for property number 71, previously also having a doorway numbered 72, including its airspace and subsoil.

The agreement was amended and extended repeatedly. Agius personally signed the final extension on Blue Clay Hotels’ behalf on 8 April 2026, alongside Refalo for DTX.

Refalo’s company alleges that Blue Clay failed to complete the sale despite being formally called upon to do so. It wants the court to enforce the transaction or, if completion under the agreed terms proves impossible, award damages.

Agius’s company has responded by placing responsibility squarely on Refalo’s DTX.

In its sworn defence, Blue Clay maintains that it was always ready to complete the sale and that Refalo’s company failed to make the necessary arrangements.

It also argues that the promise of sale had already expired when DTX filed its judicial letter. According to Blue Clay, the financing referred to in the final extension had become available, triggering a deadline that DTX failed to meet.

The allegations remain contested and the case is ongoing.

Shared interests under strain

The agreements show how closely the developers’ business arrangements were intertwined.

A December amendment provided for the purchase to be funded through Excel Investments dividends, channelled through DTX Holdings to DTX Properties. The April extension referred to an equity-release loan to Deja Blue Limited.

The original agreement also linked the Xagħra sale to a St Julian’s property acquisition by Blue Clay St. Julians Limited.

The dispute adds to the signs of a widening rift following Portelli and Refalo’s departure from Prax Concrete. That business passed into Agius’s control through Joseph Agius and Sons Gozo Limited.

A spokesman for Portelli described his departure as a private commercial decision, without disclosing the price or explaining the reasons. He nevertheless confirmed that Portelli retained other business interests alongside Agius and Refalo.

Those continuing interests mean the partnership has not been entirely dismantled. Yet the withdrawal from a shared business and the opposing sworn accusations over another deal reveal fractures within a once closely aligned group.

Sources close to the businessmen told The Shift that the public disputes reflect a deeper breakdown in relations. What has emerged so far, they said, is just “the tip of the iceberg”.