$2.25m pay pot for 12 O’Brien staff

Twelve staff at Denis O’Brien’s Dublin-based aircraft leasing business, Aergo Capital last year shared a pay pot of $2.25m (€1.7m), or on average $187,750 (€141,452) each.

Pay for staff at Aergo Capital Ltd last year increased from $1.986m to $2.22m in spite of revenues and profits tumbling.

Accounts just filed with the Companies Office show that pre-tax profits last year declined sharply from $6m to $376,000.

This followed revenues at the firm declining by 61% from $16.6m to $6.4m in the 12 months to the end of December last.

The figures show that emoluments to the firm’s seven directors — who include Mr O’Brien — last year halved from $2.564m to $1.295m.

The filings show that the firm’s staff costs for the 12 employees last year totalled $2.460m compared to $2.4m for 11 employees in 2011.

The employment costs were last year made up of $2.25m in pay, PRSI costs of $143,000 and pension contributions of $64,000.

The company’s staff costs account for 38% of revenues last year.

However, the accounts show that the firm generated an additional $4.7m in ‘other operating income’ made up of $1.9m in profit on disposal of subsidiaries; $1.45m in management fees and commission earned and $1m profit on the disposal of an aircraft.

The firm also incurred other operating expenses totalling $5m.

The firm last year recorded an operating loss of $206,000 compared to an operating profit of $9.2m in 2011.

However, net finance income of $609,000 contributed to the firm recording the pre-tax profit of $376,000 and a tax credit of $130,000 resulted in a profit of $506,000.

The drop in profits for Aergo in 2012 and 2011 follows the firm disposing of its South African-based Safair group for the gross amount of $91.7m in Nov 2010.

The firm paid a $55m dividend to shareholders during 2011.

According to the 2012 directors’ report, the directors “are satisfied with the performance of the business and year-end financial position”.

The firm’s total assets dropped from $33.9m to $21.8m at the end of December last.

The firm’s direct costs last year decreased from $11.7m to $6.3m with finance costs decreasing from $3.3m to $412,000.

The figures show that at the last year the company had accumulated profits of $8.4m.