Profits at Daft up despite €750k write-off

THE company behind property website daft.ie increased its profits last year despite writing down a €1 million investment in the firm which operates community website boards.ie.

Accounts recently filed with the Companies’ Office show that Daft Media last year increased its pre-tax profits by 8% to €1.7m.

Last year, the company acquired competing website property.ie, enabling it to increase its turnover by 55% from €3.7m to €5.7m to the end of December last.

The company recorded an operating profit of €2.45m, an increase of 55% on the 2007 figure of €1.58m.

However, profits were hit after the company wrote down its investment in boards.ie Ltd.

Established in 1997 by brothers Eamon and Brian Fallon, Daft Media acquired a minority stake in boards.ie Ltd last August. And the filings show that it has written down its investment in boards.ie Ltd by €749,750 to €250,000 from €999,750.

On the write down, the directors said “notwithstanding that the business continues to grow strongly in terms of community, traffic and page intermissions, its revenues are still uncertain”.

The filings show Daft Media has €1.8m in accumulated profits and a total of €2m in shareholder funds. The company did not pay a dividend last year. They also show directors’ remuneration last year for management and consultancy services increased by 29% from €270,000 to €349,425.

The filings show that the Daft Media Ltd’s cost base last year increased by 54% from €2.1m to €3.3m.

According to the directors’ report, “the company is reliant on the property sector in Ireland and may be impacted if there is a prolonged downturn in the market, which adversely affects real estate agents”.