A NEAR €10 million reduction in the value of investment properties and an interest bill of €25.6 million drove pre-tax losses at Harcourt Developments close to €22 million last year, according to the latest figures.
The Pat Doherty-controlled property firm owns Park West industrial estate in Dublin and has interests in Citywest. It owns hotels and has assets in Britain and Europe and a development in progress in the US. Its directors include former broadcaster Mike Murphy and Andrew Parker Bowles, former husband of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and wife of Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne.
It is also the main private sector developer behind the Titanic quarter urban renewal project in Belfast.
Accounts just filed with the Companies Registration Office show that Harcourt generated €138 million in turnover from rent, hotel income and the sale of development properties last year.
The group had an operating profit of €13.4 million. However, its pre-tax losses came to €21.9 million. Harcourt last year paid €25.6 million in interest. At the same time, it wrote €9.76 million off the value of some of its investment properties.
The accounts show that the bulk of the writedown in the value of its assets was attributable to an €8.7 million loss on investment properties held by a subsidiary, Airscape, which is involved in Park West and other developments.
The pre-tax loss was over 75 per cent up on the €12 million deficit that Harcourt recorded in 2007. The directors’ report states that the increase in losses is largely attributable to the writedown in the value of its properties.
The group had net debts of €688 million at the end of 2008. Of this, €449 million was due for repayment to its banks within one year, €251 million was due over longer periods, and it owed €1.4 million on leases. Its net cash was €15 million and shareholders’ funds stood at €133 million.
At the end of the year, the value of its hotels in Ireland, Antigua, London and Manchester more than doubled to €132 million as it added new properties to its stock.
A revaluation of its investment properties added €16.4 million to reserves. This was separate to the writedown taken against the profit and loss account.
Harcourt has committed, along with developer Jim Mansfield and Davy Hickey Properties, to contribute to the cost of extending one of Dublin’s Luas light rail lines from Tallaght to Citywest in Saggart, Co Dublin.
The accounts show that Harcourt Developments put aside almost €15 million at the end of last year to pay for its share of the €150 million project. The Irish subsidiary of Dutch engineering giant BAM won the contract for the works earlier this year. Harcourt is involved in a commercial and residential development at Sullivan Square, Las Vegas, in the US.
