Infrastructure operator NTR will provide €3 million in fresh funding to drive growth at its part-owned UK waste company, Materials Recovery Limited (MRL), this year.
NTR chief executive Mr Jim Barry said yesterday that the additional funds would go primarily to expanding the company's sales team and building its market penetration.
MRL turned over about £2 million sterling last year in an overall waste management market worth about £650 million.
Mr Barry said the firm planned to become a "significant niche player" doing business worth about £35 million sterling each year.
MRL, in which NTR took a 51 per cent stake for €4 million about 14 months ago, concentrates on waste management and recycling for the commercial and industrial markets.
Mr Barry was speaking after NTR's annual general meeting in Dublin.
NTR chairman Mr Tom Roche earlier told shareholders that trading so far in 2004 has been "very satisfactory" for the group.
Addressing the meeting Mr Barry said NTR, which was best-known historically for operating Dublin's two toll bridges, was moving out of a phase of asset development and into a period of project management.
He said "significant profit growth" would not flow from a series of hefty investments made by the company across all of its markets - roads, waste, wind energy, water and broadband - until the end of this year or the start of 2005.
NTR is not a listed company but its shares, which recently rose to an all-time high of €12.00, are traded on a grey market handled by Davy Stockbrokers.
Mr Barry acknowledged the strength in the share price, but said he also believed that there was "substantive growth to come".
He reiterated the board's view that a listing was not in the interests of shareholders as long as the company remained in transition.
NTR is due to complete a €90 million fundraising for its 51 per cent-owned Airtricity wind energy venture over the next two months.
The group will keep its stake at 51 per cent after the fundraising has been completed.
Mr Barry said the Republic remains "nowhere near" meeting its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol to limit emissions and move towards renewable energy.
He said there was no co-ordination between ESB National Grid, the energy regulator, and the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources on the issue of preventing new wind power projects to join the Republic's energy network.
This was for fear of putting it under too much pressure.
"It was badly handled," he said of the ESB National Grid moratorium. However, he accepted that the problem is more of a long-term issue than an imminent one for NTR.
He indicated that, if the restriction remains in place for too long,Airtricity may be forced to raise its investment in windfarms elsewhere, such as in the North.
Mr Barry also expressed some concern at the timeframe for the Government's plans for upgrading Dublin's M50 that were released on Wednesday.
He said he was "surprised" that the project would not enter the construction phase until the end of next year.
He also added that things would have happened faster under an earlier NTR proposal to finance the upgrading of the entire ring road.
