Pat Doherty's Harcourt Development Group recorded pre-tax profits of €180.77m last year.
New consolidated accounts filed by Marzocco UC show that the bumper profits arose mainly from the group booking a €174.15m gain from the sale of its shopping centre network here and associated debt restructuring.
The group recorded the pre-tax profits of €180.77m as group revenues declined by 32% from €129.3m to €87.55m mainly due to the exit from its shopping centre business here.
During 2023, a fund managed by Davy Real Estate acquired Harcourt's six regional shopping centres in a reported €74m deal.
Harcourt Developments owned the shopping centres through its Lindat subsidiary and the directors state that "the sale of Lindat and the associated debt restructuring led to a significant gain in the group’s 2023 results".
The directors said that the shopping centre sale released all of the group’s main lender, Luxembourg based EPF security in the group with the exception of the Bahamas.
The directors said that the residual EPF debt has been transferred to a related party.
The Marzocco group is headquartered in Dublin and has interests here, in the UK, Europe, the US and the Caribbean.
The group operates five hotels including the five star Lough Eske Castle hotel in Co Donegal and the Carlisle Bay in Antigua and the directors state that "during 2023 all our hotels benefited from a full year of trading without restrictions and occupancy numbers and room rates returned to pre-pandemic levels".
They state: "As a result, the hotels enjoyed a strong year in terms of revenue and profitability and this trend has continued into 2024. We are now actively planning upgrade and extension projects for several of our hotels to cater for the additional demand."
The directors said that overall the Group "performed largely in line with budget from a trading perspective for 2023 resulting in an operating profit of €33.69m before the impact of debt restructuring, asset revaluations and interest costs".
The accounts show that the group incurred €13m in interest charges and a loss of €16.28m on asset revaluations.
They said that "overall, the Group continued to generate sufficient cash surplus to cover its operating costs and to meet the obligations to all of its banks".
The directors said that the group’s Citywest residential scheme is progressing well and will deliver approximately 1,250 homes.
The directors said that "the first phases known as Cuil Duin and Parklands Phase 1 with a total of 466 units are completed and sold. The majority of Phase 2 of the Parklands scheme totalling 296 units are complete and sold with the final units due to complete in Q1 2025".
Numbers employed by the group declined from 530 to 474 in 2023 as staff costs reduced from €16.57m to €14.9m.
Directors’ pay totalled €748,368. The profits take account of non-cash depreciation costs of €1.5m; rent and rates of €607,587 and legal and professional fees of €1.6m.
The chief factor behind the drop in group revenues were revenues in rental income, service charge income and property management fees declining from €37.39m to €17.04m.
The group generated revenues from €45.89m from development; €24.28m from hotels and €325,694 from construction.
The bulk of the group’s income was generated in Ireland at €83.19m with €2.7m in the Caribbean and €1.6m in 'other’.
The profit for last year reduced the group’s shareholder deficit to €186.6m that included €179.9m
The group’s cash funds increased from €11.59m to €14.68m.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
