Blackrock Clinic owner company’s profits leap to €12.38m

The company that owns the Blackrock Clinic in Dublin saw its profits rise significantly in 2018, to €12.38 million. Pretax profits in 2017 were €9.5 million.

The 2018 result is disclosed in accounts just filed by Breccia Unlimited Company, one of the web of meat, property and healthcare companies ultimately owned by the Larry Goodman family trusts.

Breccia owns 28 per cent of Blackrock Hospital Ltd, which had capital and reserves of €100 million at the end of 2018, according to the Breccia accounts.

The businessman’s prominence in the private hospital sector is growing. He is in the process of gaining full control of the Galway Clinic, and is also expected to secure a majority stake in the Blackrock Clinic.

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Mr Goodman has been involved in a series of long-running High Court disputes with co-shareholders in Blackrock Hospital Ltd Dr Joe Sheehan snr, businessman John Flynn and a number of corporate entities.

Under post-balance sheet events, the accounts state that Breccia expects to receive €5.4 million from Blackrock Hospital arising from a High Court order, with the sum being retained dividends attributable to two shareholdings in Blackrock over which Breccia has a charge.

The judge hearing the disputes over the ownership of Blackrock Hospital, Mr Justice Michael Quinn, reserved his judgment just before Christmas.

Complex litigation

Those proceedings were taken by one of the clinic’s founders, Dr Sheehan snr, in 2014.

While at one stage represented by two senior counsels and one junior, Dr Sheehan has in more recent times been representing himself in the complex litigation, which has to do with the obligations of the shareholders in Blackrock Hospital. The judgment is expected to be delivered in February.

The Breccia accounts show accumulated losses at year’s end of €17 million, down by €3 million from the previous year’s figure.

The company received dividends during the year of €1.4 million from associated companies situated in the Republic, according to the accounts.

Breccia is involved in a series of high-value transactions and loans with companies based in Luxembourg that form a key part of the Goodman group’s international financial, tax and corporate structure.

Goodman Group

Amounts owed to group companies at year’s end were €76.6 million and the accounts state that Breccia has the written assurance that repayment of the loans will not be sought over the coming year.

Last year The Irish Times reported that nine companies in the Goodman Group reported a profit of €170 million in 2018 and had assets worth more than €3.45 billion, according to accounts filed in Luxembourg. The bulk of the profits were booked in Luxembourg and were largely untaxed.

One of the advantages that can flow from using Luxembourg for intergroup financing arrangements is that the taxable profits of companies in other jurisdictions can be reduced by way of payments made to the companies in Luxembourg, which in turn pay little or no tax.

One of the Luxembourg companies ultimately owned by the Goodman trusts, Aburg Sarl, reported a profit of €46.6 million in the year to the end of March last, according to accounts filed recently in Luxembourg.