Board changes at investment company One51 following after-tax loss of over €109m

INVESTMENT COMPANY One51 yesterday announced a series of board changes, as the company posted an after-tax loss of €109.6 million for 2011.

The losses were primarily due to a €120.8 million write-down on its investments last year, including a €62 million write-down in the goodwill value of the company’s metal recycling business, ClearCircle Environmental, which operates four metal recycling plants in the Republic and is a key strand of One51’s business.

The company’s 2011 loss follows a €104 million loss in 2010, primarily due to a write-down in the company’s investment in NTR.

One51 made an operating profit of €20.6 million last year, a third lower than the €31.1 million posted in 2010. Pre-tax profits more than halved from €24.5 million to €10.9 million.

Turnover increased last year by 12 per cent, from €375.7 million to €421.8 million.

However, pressure on margins across the operating profits pushed ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) down by 22.4 per cent to €36.6 million.

Ebitda was also effected by the loss of the NTR dividend and other non-recurring income.

The company announced substantial changes to its board yesterday. Five board members – Eithne Fitzgerald, Hans Droog, Finbarr O’Neill, Hugo Maguire and James Murphy – will step down before this summer’s agm.

A further three non-executive directors – chairman Denis Buckley, Noel Cawley and David Martin – will retire before the company’s agm in 2013.

In addition four new directors have been appointed to the board: Paul Carroll, former managing partner of AL Goodbody; Rose Hynes, the current chairwoman of Bord Gáis; Mike Wynne, chairman of the AMCS Group; and former Kerry Group executive Denis Cregan, now chairman of Kerry airport.

The changes are part of a two-year action plan adopted last year.

One51 has faced intense criticism from some shareholders as the value of shares in the company, which are traded in the grey market, have plummeted in recent years.

Last year, Philip Lynch, who founded One51 as a spin-off from IAWS, was ousted as chief executive. Former chief financial officer Alan Walsh succeeded him.

One 51 holds a disparate group of investments, many bought at the top of the boom.