Estate agents, Lisney, is on course to return to "strong profitability" in its current financial year after two years of losses.
That is according to its managing director, David Byrne, who was commenting on new consolidated accounts for Lisney Ltd which show that the group recorded a pre-tax loss of €431,813 in the 12 months to the end of March 2023.
The pre-tax loss followed a pre-tax profit of €674,826 in the prior year and the company recorded the loss as revenues increased last year by 10% from €14.16m to €15.62m.
Following further unspecified operating losses in the 12 months to the end of March this year "due largely to market conditions", the directors say they activated a new strategy "which includes business realignment and some cost cutting measures in order to put the business in a position where profitability can be sustained into the future".
The directors say that following year end, "the Group obtained additional debt funding totalling €1.5m to support this strategy and aid in the Group's continual investments and working capital requirements".
Mr Byrne said that the business is "currently on track to return to strong profitability for the 2024/2025 financial year".
The firm last year declared a €500,000 dividend while staff costs increased by €2.5m from €9.29m to €11.79m as headcount increased by 21 rising from 106 to 127.
The number of directors increased by one to six and aggregate directors' pay increased by 30% from €963,468 to €1.25m.
On the 2023 loss, Mr Byrne said that while revenues within the residential, advisory and property management segments of the business satisfactorily increased year on year, there was reduced transactional activity across the entire Irish commercial real estate market in H2 of 2022 and into 2023.
Mr Byrne said that this was "primarily due to successive interest rate increases from July 2022 as well as rising inflation and other business costs".
He said: "This impacted the group's anticipated overall P&L position for the year, resulting in an operating loss at year end."
Mr Byrne said that to counteract this, "the board implemented a number of strategic cost reduction measures to return the business to a position of profitability whilst continuing to prudently invest in areas such as technology and broader strategic initiatives which align with the longer-term group vision and strategy".
The 2023 fiscal loss takes account of combined non-cash amortisation and depreciation costs of €404,389 and operating lease charges of €632,382.
"We are continuing a programme of strategic investment and development to future-proof our business and cement our position as one of Ireland's largest privately owned multi-disciplinary property professional services group into the future," Mr Byrne said.
Mr Byrne added that Lisney is now mid-way through an ambitious five-year business plan which commenced in 2021 following a full strategic review of the business.
He said that since then, "we have successfully engaged in a brand identity refresh, rolled out the Lisney Sotheby's International Realty brand nationwide for our residential division and significantly strengthened our Lisney Commercial Real Estate presence".
Accumulated profits at the end of March 2023 totalled €3.29m. Cash funds more than halved from €1.34m to €621,135.
