Developer Noel Smyth’s Bridgeclip records pretax profits of over €6m

Sale of particular site increases turnover by €17m

The sale of a single site by developer Noel Smyth’s Bridgeclip contributed to the group recording pretax profits of €6.13 million last year.

Accounts lodged by Mr Smyth’s Bridgeclip Holdings Ltd show that the business returned to profit after revenues increased by 134 per cent from €12.8 million to €29.97 million in the 12 months to the end of June 2021. The directors said that group turnover “increased by over €17 million largely due to the sale of a particular site during the year and the advancement of previous contracts entered into”.

The investment holding company has 48 subsidiaries including Fitzwilliam Real Estate Capital Ltd.

The subsidiaries also include Fitzwilliam Real Estate Developments Ltd which currently has plans before Dublin City Council for a nine-storey 245-bedroom hotel at Middle Abbey Street partially over Arnotts.

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Another subsidiary, Bridgeclip (Developments) Ltd, secured planning permission from An Bord Pleanála this year to construct 112 build-to-rent apartments for Rocklawn, Leopardstown, in south Dublin.

The accounts – signed off on November 28th- show that the group’s pretax profit of €6.13 million followed a pretax loss of €8.79 million in 2020, which was hit by a non-cash €5.17 million writedown in the value of investment properties.

The group recorded an operating profit of €8.1 million for 2021, and interest payments of €1.9 million combined with exceptional costs of €201,706 along with a €21,717 loss on sale of property resulted in the pretax profit of €6.1 million.

In a note with the accounts the directors said that the company was well positioned going forward.

The pretax loss takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €118,737

The accounts disclose that the business benefited from €93,489 from a suite of government grants in response to Covid-19. Numbers directly employed by the business totalled 12, and staff costs totalled €733,752. Directors’ pay came to €402,417. The amount repayable to Noel Smyth reduced from €561,667 to €160,229 during the year.

At the end of June, 2021, the business had shareholder funds of €31.54 million that included accumulated profits of €20.3 million. The company’s cash funds totalled €1.69 million.

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan is a contributor to The Irish Times