Losses at Browne’s firm halve to €568k

Accumulated losses at broadcaster Vincent Browne’s Village Communications company have almost halved in the space of two years to €568,445.

Abridged accounts filed with the Companies Office show that the firm’s accumulated losses in 2012 fell by €240,119, from €808,564 to €568,445.

At the end of 2010, the firm’s accumulated losses totalled just over €1m.

The losses had accumulated through Browne’s publication of Village magazine. Browne’s editorship of the magazine ceased in 2008. It continues to be published by Ormond Quay Publishing Ltd.

Village Communications Ltd continues to trade through Browne’s TV3 income as it pays down the debts built up by Browne’s costly Village venture.

According to the accounts, the amount that Village Communications owes to creditors reduced further last year, from €484,912 to nearly €350,000.

This is down from the €1,064,307 that was owed to creditors at the end of 2009.

This contributed to the firm’s net liabilities reducing from €528,558 to €288,439 at year end.

The firm’s cash during the year more than doubled from €8,547 to €19,396.

Confirmation of the continued improved performance by Village Communications in 2012 follows Browne, 69, stating in The Sunday Times at the weekend that he is debt-free for the first time in decades after selling his family home in south Dublin.

According to the property register, the Dalkey house sold for €2.6m in Aug 2011 — 11 months after going on the market with an asking price of €3.25m.

Browne, a journalist of 46 years, told The Sunday Times: “About two months ago, I had the realisation that for the first time since my second week in UCD I was not in debt.

“I failed to pay the money for digs in the second week of UCD and I’d been in debt ever since. But at last, I got out of it.”