The operating businesses in Pat Doherty’s Harcourt Development Group are trading strongly and the financial outlook for 2022 looks positive. That is according to directors for group parent,Marzocco Unlimited Co, which reported a19.6 per cent contraction in pretax losses to €17.2 million in 2020 in accounts just filed.
Revenues at the business slumped by a third in the year to €63 million. However, directors said that, before allowing for the impact of asset revaluations and interest costs, the business recorded an operating profit of €11.8 million.
The group is headquartered in Dublin and has interests here, in the UK, Europe, the US and the Caribbean. It operates five hotels including the five-star Lough Eske Castle hotel in Co Donegal and the Carlisle Bay in Antigua.
Commenting on their performance, directors said that once they were allowed to reopen after Covid-19 restrictions, occupancy levels and room rates returned rapidly. The overall outlook is positive, they said, with the majority of the hotels now managed and operated directly by the Harcourt Hotels team.
The group also manages six shopping centres here and has a large land bank at Park West in Dublin where in recent days it secured planning permission from An Bord Pleanála for 750 apartments.
The group is selling several stand-alone properties in Belfast and a 600-acre beachfront development site in Tobago, the directors said.
Over 2020, they said, the business performed largely in line with budget and continued to generate sufficient cash surplus to cover its operating costs and to meet obligations to all of its banks. Interest on borrowings came to €30.8 million over the year, down slightly on the €31.4 million reported the previous year.
The accounts confirm that the group received €1.8 million in grants in 2020 to assist the business during Covid-19.
Numbers employed fell last year to 709, from 735, and staff costs declined by a quarter to €14.78 million. Directors’ pay increased marginally at €568,000.
A breakdown of Marzocco’s revenues show that €30 million was generated through rental income, service charge income and property management fees; €16.5 million from development and construction and €16.4 million from hotels.
The bulk of the group’s income was generated in Ireland at €52.17 million, with €9.9 million in the Caribbean and €913,567 elsewhere.
