Murphy’s former company records €29m pre-tax loss

THE Dublin-based property group that TV personality Mike Murphy resigned as a director from last year, recorded pre-tax losses totalling €29.7 million in 2010.

Mr Murphy resigned from Harcourt Developments on December 31 last.

Figures lodged with the Companies Office show that Harcourt Developments recorded losses of €29.7m last year after its revenues declined from €140.8m to €125.4m in the 12 months to the end of December last.

According to the directors’ report, the loss “is largely attributed to interest costs”. It followed the company recording a loss of €23.8m in 2009.

In 2010, Harcourt Developments had an operating profit of €13.7m. However, interest payments of €32m. coupled with a loss of €8.6m on the disposal of fixed assets, contributed to the €29m loss.

The figures confirm that the company paid a donation of €1,500 to Fine Gael last year.

Harcourt Developments is led by Donegal man Pat Doherty, and also counts among its directors Andrew Parker Bowles, former husband of Camilla — Prince Charles’s wife.

A note attached to the accounts confirms that the group’s debts at the end of last year stood at €716m.

The accounts state that the group’s total assets stood at €836.1m at the end of 2010 and that a business plan has been successfully submitted to the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA) and that a memorandum of understanding has been signed with NAMA regarding new loan facilities.

The accounts state the approval of the plan and the signing of the memorandum “secures the group’s financial position and outlines a strategy to repay its losses over an agreed timeframe. We are in active negotiations with a number of financial institutions as part of this longer term strategy”.

The group owns and actively manages six shopping centres in Ireland, with one shopping centre at Laois currently undergoing a major redevelopment.

The accounts state that all of the remaining centres are scheduled for expansion and redevelopment when the economic climate permits and they are currently at various stages of the planning process.

The group also owns Park West business park in Dublin, a number of hotels in Donegal, Dublin, Jersey and Antigua, and a mixed-use development in Las Vegas which will again be developed when market conditions permit.