Sale of 'equine jewels' helps Goffs to record ring turnover of €238.3m

At the Goffs November breeding stock sale, Group One winning siblings, Alpha Centauri and Alpine Star were part of a significant draft of the Niarchos family’s bloodstock and were snapped up by John Magnier’s Coolmore for a record €6m each in a €19m spree by Coolmore. Photo: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images

The sale of “equine jewels” at Goffs helped the bloodstock auctioneering business to achieve record ring sales of €238.3m in its latest financial year.

New accounts for Robert J Goff & Co plc show on the back of the record ring turnover, which included the sale of the world's two highest priced thoroughbreds of the year, pre-tax profits increased by 59% to €3.6m in the 12 months to the end of March this year.

At the Goffs November breeding stock sale, Group One winning siblings, Alpha Centauri and Alpine Star were part of a significant draft of the Niarchos family’s bloodstock and were snapped up by John Magnier’s Coolmore for a record €6m each in a €19m spree by Coolmore.

The new accounts show that net revenues at Goffs rose by 11% from €21.59m to €23.94m in the 12 months to the end of March this year.

In her report, Goffs chairwoman, Eimear Mulhern stated that the board “is very pleased to report another highly successful trading period for the company”. Ms Mulhern said that the €238.3m group ring turnover “is a record turnover for the company”.

Ms Mulhern said: “The privilege of handling a significant draft of the Niarchos family's bloodstock portfolio at our November breeding stock sale was undoubtedly an immense highlight.” Ms Mulhern said that this most spectacular collection of bloodstock of "equine jewels” was “a global bloodstocks sales highlight”.

In his report, Goffs group CEO, Henry Beeby said that "to break the turnover record in three consecutive years is a source of great pride for all the Goffs team”. The directors are proposing a 13.5c dividend per share which followed a 8.5pc dividend per share for fiscal 2023 which totalled €565,942.

In his report, Mr Beeby said that the most important sale of the year, the Goffs Orby sale last November "was boosted by a huge contingent of US buyers who invested over €10m which contributed to a sale that enjoyed more six- and seven-figure lots than 12 months previously”.

In his concluding remarks in his report, Mr Beeby observes that “we have seen a tightening of the market in recent times and it will be hard to match the last 12 months".

Goffs property

The Club at Goffs Hotel opened on Goffs lands in the prior year and Ms Mulhern said that the tenant is “performing very well”. 

Under the heading of ‘Goffs Property’, Ms Mulhern stated that Goffs Property “has a number of high-quality country houses and stud farms on its books currently and is looking forward to some important sales in the coming months”.

Accounts

The group’s operating profits increased by 58% to €4.27m and interest payments of €642,000 reduced profits to a pre-tax profit of €3.63m. The group recorded a post-tax profit of €2.93m after paying corporation tax of €696,000.

The profit last year takes account of non-cash depreciation, amortisation and impairment costs of €859,000. Numbers employed by Goffs last year increased to 84 made up of 61 permanent staff and 23 temporary staff.

Staff costs increased from €5.56m to €6.09m. Pay to directors increased from €1.32m to €1.4m while pay to key management personnel this year increased from €3.12m to €3.28m.

At the end of March, Goffs had shareholder funds totalling €39.84m that included accumulated profits of €24.59m. The firm’s cash funds decreased from €7.44m to €4.02m.