Mulryan property group makes €119m loss

PRE-tax losses at the international property operation run by one of the country’s best-known developers, Sean Mulryan, last year jumped 83% to €119.2 million.

Documents just filed with the Companies Office confirm that plunging international property prices resulted in Ballymore

International Developments Ltd and subsidiaries writing down the value of investment and hotel properties by €69m last year, and this followed a write-down of €65m in 2008.

The pre-tax loss last year of €119.2m followed the group recording a pre-tax loss of €64.9m in 2008.

At the end of last year, the group presided over an international property portfolio of €989m partly financed by bank loans of 566m, with the remainder financed by profit participating loan notes of €152m and zero coupon loan notes of €375m.

However, revenues at the group to the end of December last more than halved from €35.2m to €17.9m.

Earlier this year, NAMA took over the loans Mr Mulryan’s property business had with the participating Irish banks in the scheme.

Anticipating the transfer of a number of the group’s loans to NAMA, the directors state that “the impact of this transfer remains uncertain and the approach adopted by NAMA to these loans will have a material impact on the strategy of the group”.

Ballymore International’s banks are listed as Anglo Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland and KBC Bank NV and the Ballymore group has 24 active subsidiaries in eight countries across Europe.

The directors admit that the “operating environment for the business has been increasingly difficult. Despite this, the group successfully opened the Eurovea International Trade Centre in Bratislava in March 2010, which is set to become one of the most prestigious mixed-use developments in Central Europe”.

The directors state that the property attracted over one million visitors in its first month and that “Eurovea demonstrates the group’s capability of delivering a successful premium development product even in the most hostile of global financial environments”.

However, the directors expect the future general activity of the group “to be significantly impacted by the adverse conditions in the property, finance and general economic environment in which the group operates”.

The accounts show that 56% or €10.2m of the group’s revenues last year were in the Czech Republic. Operating losses at the group last year increased by 74% from €48m to €83.8m and the interest payments of 19m and unwinding of discount on zero coupon notes of €16.9m added to the losses. The group also incurred a loss of 2m on the disposal of an investment property. The company had accumulated losses of €174.8m at the end of 2009.