Turning around firms' fortunes, good cheer from XtraVision and O'Brien tees up profits
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NOT SATISFIED with offering us popcorn and soda with our DVD rentals, XtraVision’s new owners have now decided they’d like to sell us wine, too.
A film and a bottle of wine, sure what better way to escape our economic woes?
XtraVision was in court in Wexford this week applying for a licence to sell bottles of cheap plonk.
It has already secured licences for shops in Castlebar and Roscommon and will sell wine on a trial basis in about eight shops around the State before deciding if it will roll it out across the chain.
Solicitor Catríona Walsh, acting for XtraVision, said that a small portion of the shop premises on Wexford’s North Main Street would be set aside to stock wine.
She said that staff would receive special training to “make them aware of all of the rules and regulations regarding the sale of intoxicating liquor”, adding that a special training document for staff had already been produced.
With no objection from the Garda, Judge Donnchadh O’Buachalla granted the application. So XtraVision punters can now pick up a bottle or red or white with their DVD or Blu-Ray rentals.
In August, Dublin investment company Pageant Holdings and a fund run by NCB Stockbrokers bought the entertainment chain – which specialises in DVD rentals, the sale of electronic games and equipment and music sales – from US group Blockbuster in a deal worth €32 million.
XtraVision this year celebrates its 30th birthday. Appropriately enough, the home page of Xtra Vision's website currently has a large advertisement for a film called The Hangover, which is described as the "biggest movie of the year".
Investment business to target firms in need of help
FORMER CLARET Capital partner Max Doyle is back in business. The financier has teamed up with lawyer Leon Atkins – also ex-Claret – to set up Prime Focus, an investment business that will target turnaround opportunities in Ireland and the UK.
The pair have put together a fund of €10 million, having secured backing from Irish leasing group Abbey International Finance, and Signature Capital, the property investment business led by Ciarán McNamara.
Doyle believes there are a number of businesses that have good prospects over the medium term, but are experiencing short-term financing or trading difficulties and need new investment with a different business plan.
So which sectors will they target? “Retail is one,” Doyle told me this week. “We’ll also look at B2B services companies that are over-geared. Pharmacies are one area likely to pop up on our radar.”
Doyle said the initial €10 million should allow it make three to four investments.
“If successful, we’ll try to raise a bit more.”
To help promote the business, Prime Focus has teamed up with BDO Simpson Xavier, AL Goodbody, KavanaghFennell and FTI Consulting, to host a Corporate Restructuring Summit in Dublin on December 8th.
A couple of months back, Doyle (pictured, left) spent a week in Iceland with a film crew in tow, working on a documentary about the collapse in the economy there and the lessons to be learned by Ireland.
He’s sent a 10-minute taster to RTÉ and TV3.
“I hope to hear from them pretty soon,” he says.
O'Brien's golf course firms in full swing on continent
ACCOUNTS JUST filed in the UK shine a little light into the performance of two companies that manage Denis O’Brien’s interests in golf courses in Spain and the Algarve and Anglo Irish Bank’s interest in the businesses.
Murryhill Holdings Ltd teed up a profit last year of £3.2 million, mostly on the back of asset sales. It actually made an operating loss of £95,709. The company’s assets include Catalunya Golf Ltd.
The accounts state that its entire issued share capital – €6.35 million – was pledged earlier this year in favour of Anglo Irish Bank to support a loan to its parent company Murryhill Ltd (Isle of Man).
Meanwhile, Algarve Courses Ltd, a holding company for O’Brien’s Quinta do Lago golf course in Portugal, did not trade in 2008. But its accounts state its subsidiary, Sociedade do Golfe da Quinta do Lago, made a pretax profit of £2.5 million last year. It had capital and reserves of £7.3 million.
“The directors have considered the carrying value and future prospects of the subsidiary and do not believe the investment is impaired,” the accounts add.
In 2007, Algarve Courses Ltd had taken a £1 million dividend from its Quinta do Lago subsidiary. That was a year when Quinta do Lago made a pretax profit of £6.34 million.
A loan of €40 million was taken out in 2003 and is supported by a charge over the Quinta do Lago business.
A “share pledge” agreement has been created in favour of Anglo Irish Bank for all “present and future obligations or liabilities” from Quinta do Lago, according to the accounts.
Little Things
AS ANGLO Irish Bank goes legal with former chief David Drumm over the transfer of his Malahide home into his wife’s name, Land Registry records give details of another site owned by the couple.
David and Lorraine Drumm own a property at The Way, Skerries Rock, on the Balbriggan Road in north Co Dublin. The records show a week before Drumm stepped down at Anglo, they paid off a loan to Irish Life & Permanent and refinanced with KBC. A lucky break for IL&P, some might say.
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EUROPEAN RUGBY Cup (ERC) head of communications John Corcoran is off to work for Denis O’Brien’s Digicel mobile empire.
After five years promoting the Heineken Cup, Corcoran heads to sunny Fiji next week as group head of PR and sponsorship for Digicel’s Pacific operations. ERC is seeking a replacement and, by all accounts, there’s quite a scrum to land the plum post.
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BWG FOODS, the grocery wholesaler that operates the Spar and Mace franchises here, and its holding company, Triode Investments Ltd, are going unlimited. The group will no longer have to file annual accounts.
Clearly, John Clohisey, Leo Crawford and co aren’t feeling the pinch to the extent that they need the protection of limited liability.
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SOLICITOR JOHN Gleeson is proving a chip off the old block. The son of senior counsel Dermot Gleeson, the former AIB chairman, has launched Access Legal, which provides access to experienced solicitors at cheaper rates. But in keeping with the profession’s long-stranding tradition, Gleeson declined to discuss its fees with us.
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FINALLY, I came across a glossy brochure this week for global financial adviser Houlihan Lokey. It’s “business as usual” there in spite of the banking crisis.
I’ll say. Houlihan Lokey advised the bondholders in their talks with Independent News & Media with INM picking up its considerable tab.
