Fota Island Resort hotel owner posts €113k profit

The Chinese-owned firm that operates the luxury Fota Island Resort hotel in Cork recorded pre-tax profits of just over €113,000 in its first year in business.

In 2013, the Kang family purchased the five star Fota Island Resort for a reported €20 million and they quickly followed that purchase by snapping up the Kingsley Hotel in Cork for €6m.

The Fota resort had been built by Irish developer, John Fleming for over €90m and was sold on behalf of Nama to the Beijing hotelier family.

New accounts just filed by Xiu Lan Hotels Ltd that operates the hotel, convention centre and spa resort show that the business recorded pre-tax profits of €113,842 in the 12 months to the end of September last.

The hotel includes 123 bedrooms and eight private penthouse suites.

The firm started trading on September 26 in 2013 and generated a gross profit of €7.8m to the end of September 2014.

The directors’ report states that the company plans to continue its present activities and current trading levels.

However, the pre-tax profit takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €368,661.

The firm recorded an operating profit of €371,447 and interest charges of €257,605.

At the end of September last year, the resort firm had accumulated profits of €81,223. The firm’s cash pile stood at €269,628.

The accounts show that €10.9m was spent on capital expenditure with the money used to acquire tangible assets.

Staff costs for the year were €4.13m with €78,355 paid out to directors.

Fota Island Resort was developed by the Fleming Group in 2006 after John Fleming purchased the original Fota golf course in 2004 from the Killeen Group, owned by the O’Mahony family, the Toyota car distributors.

The Fleming Group proceeded to add two more golf courses to the original course which hosted the Irish Open in both 2001 and 2002 and again last year.

In 2006, Mr Fleming invited the then Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern to officially open the hotel and signed international chain Sheraton as its operator.

But when Nama took over Fleming Group loans in 2010, PriceWaterhouse Cooper was appointed as receiver. The hotel yesterday declined to comment on the accounts filed.