Revenues at businessman Denis O'Brien's international engineering group Actavo last year increased by 8.7% to €214.62m - boosted by a strong Irish performance.
New accounts show that pre-tax profits at Actavo Group Ltd declined by 23% to €5.58m due mainly to a sharp jump in staff costs and a rise in non-core operating costs.
The directors state that the continuing core business reported revenues of €214.6m, up 8.7% on the prior year "with a strong performance in Ireland".
They state that gross margin of €35.7m was up 2.8% over the prior year.
The accounts show that Irish revenues increased by 16% from €105.76m to €122.74m while "rest of world" revenues remained flat at €91.88m.
The group's operating profits declined only marginally from €8.67m to €8.59m and €2.48m in non-core operating costs reduced profits along with €479,000 in finance costs.
On the €2.48m in non-core operating costs, a note attached to the accounts states that non-core items obscures the underlying performance trends in the business.
The note states that the costs "relate to group debtor provisions of €1.48m and one-off related provisions for legacy matters which the group intends to fully defend against".
The group recorded post tax profits of €4.18m after incurring a corporation tax charge of €1.4m.
The directors state: "We are pleased with 2023 business performance overall and the stability of all our divisions across the Group."
"2024 continues to perform strongly. In 2024 the group will fully exit underperforming contracts and business units," they said.
"We are confident of continuing to grow the business into the future," they added.
The accounts disclose that the group disposed of its Saudi Arabia arm, Saudi Arabia Actavo Company Ltd in August of this year.
Actavo is an international engineering group operating across Ireland, the UK, Middle East and the Caribbean region.
Its global workforce of over 1,900 people are engaged in network infrastructure construction, in-home telecommunications solutions, industrial & technical support services modular building and event solutions "to many of the world's leading companies and government agencies".
The directors state that at December 31, 2023, "the Group maintained a strong financial position" with cash of €18m while shareholders' funds have improved by 18.7% to €29.9m.
Numbers employed last year increased from 1,774 to 1,849 made up of 1,583 in operations and 266 in administration.
Staff costs last year increased by 62% from €79.22m to €135.62m, which included wages of €123.69m and also included "other compensation costs" of €1.87m.
The profit last year takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €3.25m.
Pay to directors, including pension contributions, decreased by 12.5% to €1.2m.
Under the heading of "contingent liability" the accounts state that during 2022, the company received a claim relating to the financial years 2017, 2018 and 2020 Siteserv BV from the Dutch tax authorities.
"The company intends to defend the matter fully. In the director's view, at the balance sheet date, there is a possible but uncertain obligation arising and thus has been treated as a contingent liability," the note states.
"At the approval of the financial statements, management do not have an estimate of the likely claim amount. The directors will continue to monitor this matter," it adds.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
