Trading results at the former jewel in the crown of the Seán Quinn business empire, the Slieve Russell hotel in Co Cavan, "have been positive" since last June and have outperformed the original budget.
That is according to new accounts for Slieve Russell Hotel Property Ltd which show that the company recorded a pre-tax loss of €1.46m in the 12 months to the end of June last.
The pre-tax loss of €1.46m followed a very modest pre-tax profit of €9,000 in fiscal 2023.
The 2024 pre-tax loss arose from interest payments almost doubling last year from €1.84m to €3.35m.
The company recorded the pre-tax loss despite revenues rising by 7% from €19.05m to €20.43m.
The loss at the hotel firm last year came ahead of the reported €30m sale of the 224 bedroom hotel by CBRE on behalf of the liquidators of IBRC, Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson of Interpath Advisory, last October.
The new owners are Brady Hotels Ireland.
With the collapse of the Seán Quinn empire, Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), formerly Anglo Irish Bank, assumed control of the Slieve Russell hotel when a share receiver was appointed to the hotel firm in April 2011.
The business recorded operating profits of €1.88m in the 12 months to the end of June last with directors stating that improved trading results are a direct result of the capital investment programme which commenced in 2022 and continued throughout 2024.
The directors state that "additional costs were incurred during 2024 in preparing the underlying assets of the company for sale".
They state that "the outlook for 2025 is positive and trading in 2025 is expected to be in line with 2024".
The directors state that the company has experienced significant inflationary increases, particularly in relation to payroll related costs.
Numbers employed last year decreased by one from 272 to 271 as staff costs rose from €8.3m to €9.1m.
The loss also takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €1.4m.
Aggregate pay to key management last year decreased from €718,000 to €673,000.
At the end of June last, the firm owed €68.2m to IBRC and subsequent to year end, the directors state that the loan liability owed by the company to IBRC was settled in full under the terms of a Settlement Deed and allowed the hotel sale to be concluded.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
