McIlroy signing doubles profits at Horizon for 2011

Signing up golfer Rory McIlroy boosted Horizon Sports Management’s fortunes in 2011 with accumulated profits more than doubling to €275,217.

McIlroy made the move to the Dublin-based firm four months after his record-breaking US Open triumph and joined his friend, the major-winning Graeme McDowell, at the firm.

McDowell had left Chubby Chandler’s ISM stable in October 2007 to join the Dublin company.

Accounts lodged with the Companies Office confirm accumulated profits increasing by 135 per cent at Horizon Sports Management Ltd from €116,720 to €275,217 in the 12 months to the end of December 2011.

In 2011, the firm’s cash pile increased from €133,007 to €248,364.

Shareholder funds totalled €315,464. The abridged accounts do not disclose revenues or what was paid in salaries.

The increase in cash follows a rise in accumulated profits from €14,682 to €116,721 in 2010.

If the mooted $250 million 10-year sponsorship deal between McIlroy and Nike is announced as expected in the coming days, Horizon’s business will receive a massive boost.

McIlroy has already announced that he will not be renewing his sponsorship deal with Jumeirah Group, having ended his association with Titleist and Oakley in late 2012.

Horizon Sports – headed by Conor Ridge and Colin Morrissey – was established in 2005 in a Ballsbridge basement.

Mr Ridge, a graduate from UCD with a master’s degree in marketing from the Smurfit Business School, remortgaged his house to get the business up and running.