Rory McIlroy’s assets worth €400m

The new firm that operates the business affairs of four time golf major winner Rory McIlroy has placed a whopping book value of €400m on assets associated with his brand.

Rory McIlroy Management Services Ltd, trading as Rory McIlroy Inc, was established towards the end of 2013 by McIlroy as part of the golfer’s expensive break from Conor Ridge’s Horizon Sports Management.

The split from the Dublin firm cost the Northern Ireland golfer in excess of a reported $25m in an out-of-court settlement in Dublin earlier this year.

The new McIlroy company, headed bymanaging director Donal Casey, manages all the royalty payments from the golf star’s various endorsements for Nike sportswear, Omega watches, Bose, Upper Deck and computer games.

The value of the McIlroy brand — that persuaded the likes of Nike to enter a reported $250m 10 year deal with the 26-year-old — is underlined by the Dublin firm placing a $422.13m (€399.55m) book value on the firm’s intangible assets connected to the golfer’s brand.

McIlroy works in many countries but opted to locate everything to do with his brand and intellectual property in Ireland by setting up the firm here as part of a strategy to simplify his business affairs.

McIlroy is listed as the sole shareholder in the firm and provides an address in Dubai as his place of residence.

Last year, McIlroy earned €5.88m in earnings on the European tour alone, boosted by his British Open win, with a further $8.2m on the US PGA tour. However, prize money and other such earnings are not part of the Irish company’s revenue because they tend to be treated as income, and taxed accordingly by the country where the championship was won.

Forbes magazine earlier this year estimated that McIlroy earned $32m through endorsements in the past year.