One More Thing: Directors predict the fortunes of Tom Higgins’ art company

Acquire Art International, a company owned by Irish Psychics Live founder Tom Higgins and his wife, was removed this week from the list of companies to be struck off of the State register.

Perhaps sensing the danger, Art Acquire’s owners recently filed long overdue accounts for 2013, although it is still not entirely up to date with its filings, according to records at the Companies Registration Office.

Higgins, who sold Irish Psychics Live in 2012, is based at a chalet in a Swiss ski resort, according to CRO records.

Realm Communications, which owned the mystic hotline, later went into liquidation under its new owners.

Higgins and his wife managed to secure a dividend payout of €9 million before they sold the business.

There is a bit of futurology within the accounts recently filed by Acquire Art. Higgins and his wife apparently believe the stock of art investments the company has made will be worth “significantly more” in the “medium term”.

Hence, they say, it should operate as a going concern, despite a €1.5 million hole in its balance sheet.

This lists stock worth €393,000, however. So the artworks would have to more than quadruple in value before the company’s assets nudge back into the black.

A cool €8.8 million of Art Acquire’s assets is the cash balance of its bank account, which presumably will be unaffected by the art market. The company also owes €10.7 million to creditors, although less than €200,000 of this is owed to the bank.

The accounts do not say to whom the rest of the money is owed.

Higgins’ past business venture might have been in the prediction game, but the auditors of his current company are not.

They have slapped a couple of health warnings on the 2013 accounts of Acquire Art International.

The auditors say they didn’t have all the information they “consider necessary” and were unable to determine “whether proper books were kept”.

Uncertainty

The auditors also said there was uncertainty about whether it could continue as a going concern without external support.

With €8.8 million in the bank, I reckon the company should be able to survive okay. Just call me psychic.