Pat Doherty's Harcourt Development Group last year recorded pre-tax profits of €156.82m.
New consolidated accounts filed by Marzocco UC show that the bumper profits arose mainly from the group booking a €138.96m gain from capital debt restructuring.
The group recorded the pre-tax profits of €156.82m as group revenues declined by 11% from €87.55m to €77.83m mainly due to the 12 month impact of the business exit from its shopping centre business here in 2023.
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 and 2024 results".
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 joint venture Carlisle Bay in Antigua and the directors state that "during 2024 all our hotels enjoyed a strong year in terms of revenue and profitability and this trend has continued into 2025".
They state that to cater for strong customer demand, 27 additional suites were added to Lough Esme Castle hotel in the third quarter of 2024 to bring the total room count to 124.
The directors state that "we are now actively planning upgrade and extension projects for several of our other hotels to cater for the additional demand."
They state that overall the group "performed largely in line with budget from a trading perspective for 2024 resulting in an operating profit of €32.96m before the impact of debt restructuring, asset revaluations and interest costs".
The accounts show that the group incurred €11.34m in interest charges and a loss of €3.52m on asset revaluations.
They state 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 state that the group's Citywest residential scheme is progressing well and will deliver approximately 1,325 homes.
The directors state that "the first phases known as Cuil Duin and Parklands Phase 1 with a total of 750 units are completed and virtually all sold. There is also full planning permission for an additional 574 apartments at Parkland Pointe and works are due to commence on site in 2026".
Numbers employed by the group increased from 474 to 497 in 2024 as staff costs increased from €14.9m to €16.38m.
Directors’ pay totalled €758,268. The profits take account of non-cash depreciation costs of €1.63m; rent and rates of €972,749 and legal and professional fees of €1.3m.
The group generated revenues from €38.64m from development; €23.84m from hotels, €13.27m rental income, service charge income and property management fees and €2.07m from construction.
The bulk of the group's income was generated in Ireland at €72.9m with €3.1m in the Caribbean and €1.8m in "other".
The profit for last year reduced the group’s shareholder deficit to €30.95m. The group’s cash funds reduced from €14.68m to €10.8m.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
