Earnings at Dublin's Gresham Hotel owner Precint Investments surge 34%

Earnings at the group that operates the Gresham Hotel in Dublin and formerly the Metropole Hotel in Cork last year increased by 34% to €3.9m.

Newly-filed figures show that revenues at Precinct Investments Ltd last year increased by 5% from €17.2m to €18m.

The group sold the Metropole Hotel for €5m in May of this year and the Gresham is currently up for sale.

The new accounts show that interest payments of €5m resulted in a pre-tax loss of €1.75m.

Numbers employed by the group last year increased from 187 to 195 with salaries reduced from €5.95m to €5.89m.

According to a note attached to the accounts “the group has continued to experience an improvement in its trading with sales increasing by 5% and earnings before interest, depreciation and redundancy costs increasing to €3.9m.

The directors said that “cash flow from operations was positive in both 2013 and 2014 and is expected to remain positive in 2015.

Trading to date in 2015 has been very strong and is outperforming both budget and prior year”.

They added that the firm has benefited from the overall upturn in the hospitality sector, particularly in Dublin.

“The upturn in revenues was also achieved against a background of a continuous cost containment programme which greatly benefited profit conversion,” they said.

The figures show that the group had a shareholders’ deficit of €106m at the end of December last.

Directors’ remuneration for the year remained the same at €310,000; made up of €130,000 in fees and €180,000 in management services.

The group’s balance sheet shows that the book value of the group’s tangible assets totalled €49.3m as of the end of last year.

The figures show that the group had bank loans totalling €132.7m at the end of the year and a further €26.88m owed to shareholders.

The directors stated that, in common with other Irish hotel groups, the group’s borrowings have been transferred to Nama and the group is operating in accordance with a business plan which is agreed with Nama.

The group’s cash pile last year increased from €1.13m to €1.72m.