Artist services firm sees losses

Pre-tax losses at the artist management company of U2 manager Paul McGuinness last year increased seven fold to €1.8m, figures show.

Accounts just filed by Principle Management Ltd to the Companies Office show that the firm’s revenues fell by 35% from €4.8m to €3.1m in the 12 months to the end of March last year.

The company provides artist management services and the returns show that Mr McGuinness, his long-time associate Trevor Bowen, and the US-based Keryn Kaplan received aggregate remuneration of €1.6m during the year.

The pre-tax loss last year of €1.8m compares to a pre-tax loss €253,821 in 2010.

The figures show that Mr McGuinness advanced a further €506,319 to the firm last year. This followed his advancing €5.7m to the company in 2010 and the amount owed by Principle Management to his at the end of the year was €9.5m.

The figures show that the company returned to record an operating loss of €1.16m last year following an operating profit of €50,491 in 2010.

The filings record that the firm recorded a loss of €27,312 on its investments last year, compared to a gain of €509,986 in 2010.

The figures also show that the firm’s profits were hit by a write-off of €657,276 in investments last year, following a 2010 write down of €836,419.

The company had administrative expenses of €4.3m, compared to €4.7m during 2009.

The figures show that the firm’s accumulated profits stood at €5.5m at the end of March.

The firm’s cash in hand also declined last year from €7.6m to €4.3m.

The numbers employed at the firm, including executive directors, remained at 13 with staff costs amounting to €2.6m last year.

The loss last year also takes account of a non-cash depreciation charge of €49,501.

The company showed that the end of last year, a 100%-owned subsidiary, Streamparker owed the firm €3m.

At year end, the firm had cash totalling €7.6m and had investments totalling €5.9m