Ballymore Properties builds profits to £22.3m

BUILDING tycoon Sean Mulryan has seen a further increase in profits at his Ballymore Properties company.

Accounts filed for Ballymore Properties in London show pre-tax profit in the year to end March 2005 increased to £22.3 million (€32.6 million) from £18.5m (€27m).

Mr Mulryan, whose company is named after the Wexford village where he grew up, is becoming one of the biggest property developers in Britain.

Company turnover for the year, which is made up of rental income and the sale of properties, dropped from £164m (€239m) to £83.1m (€121.4m). This is because of a lower level of property sales during the year.

But the cost of sales also plummeted, which resulted in gross profits rising to £37.6m (€54.9m) from £28.1m (€41m) in 2004.

As no dividend was paid out to Mr Mulryan, the company’s largest shareholder, retained profits grew to £54.3m (€79.3m). At the end of last March the company had net assets of £66.3m (€96.8m).

During the year, the average number of people employed by Ballymore, including directors, was 80, down 11 on the previous year. Wages came to £5.65m (€8.25m).

The company’s directors were paid £1.67m (€2.4m) and Mr Mulryan is believed to have been paid £1.4m (€2m) of the total figure.

The company is part of the consortium who won a £1.1 billion (€1.6 billion) redevelopment contract for of Battersea Power Station in London and is also the main driver of a £2bn (€2.9bn) bid to develop the Wood Wharf area of the city, where Mr Mulryan and the company behind Canary Wharf are planning to turn the 20-acre site into commercial office space, a hotel and 1,500 luxury apartments

Ballymore Properties was set up by Mr Mulryan in 1982 and has become one of the largest developers in Ireland and Britain.

Mr Mulryan was one of the first Irish developers to spot the potential of the London market and has developed luxury apartments close to the docklands and the financial heart of the city.