Topaz CEO hails progress after major restructuring

Topaz Energy today announced a 9% increase in operating profits, to €13.9m for the year ended March 31, 2014.

The company’s EBITDA (earnings before tax, depreciation and amortisation) figure remained static compared to 2013 at €27m, on revenues of more than €2.9bn (down from 2013’s €3.3bn figure).

The company reported a pre-tax profit before exceptional items of €2.1m. When exceptional items of €6.9m are taken into account (mostly associated with restructuring the group’s borrowings), pre-tax losses stood at €4.7m at the end of the period compared to losses of €13.6m for the equivalent period a year earlier.

Net assets stood at €75.8m at the end of the accounting period.

Speaking to mark the results Emmet O’Neill, who took over as CEO of the company earlier this month, said that company was performing well in the current year.

He announced that the company was rolling out a €20m investment programme for the company’s retail network and that a further investment programme next year would see the extension of the Topaz and ReStore brands across the Esso network of fuels and convenience stores business.

O’Neill said that Topaz was hopeful that the agreed acquisition of Esso would close before the end of this year, subject to regulatory approval.

“2014 was a transformative year for the Topaz business,” he said.

“We successfully concluded a major restructuring of the Group balance sheet which saw a significant investment by shareholders (€128.5m) and a corresponding reduction in Group borrowings of over €120m (which reduced group debt by approximately 85%).

“This has freed up the resources we need to make a really substantial investment in the business in Ireland and to ensure that we regain our leadership position in the sector here.”

Average staff numbers during the year remained broadly stable at 1,512 (an increase of 23).