Pendulum swings Sheahan’s way with higher profits

The financial performance of Frankie Sheahan’s Pendulum business-empowerment conference swung back in the former rugby star’s favour last year, with a 50 per cent rise in its profits to almost €1 million.

Accounts just filed for Pendulum Events and Training, the company that runs the annual conference, show accumulated profits increased to more than €2.2 million in the year to the end of August 2018. The company's cash pile sits at more than €2.1 million.

The accounts capture the performance of the Pendulum event held at the Convention Centre Dublin in January 2018, when more than 5,000 people attended over two days to hear a raft of motivational business speakers on the theme of “Breakthrough to Brilliance”.

Speakers included billionaire Virgin entrepreneur Richard Branson, the Ultimo bra entrepreneur Michelle Mone and perfumier Jo Malone. Delegates paid up to €1,100 each for two-day tickets, while various VIP packages cost up to four times that amount.

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The accounts do not capture the performance of the inaugural Pendulum event that was held in New York in September, or the subsequent event held in January this year in Dublin, where Boris Johnson, now the UK prime minister, spoke for a fee of £51,250 (which at the time equated to about €54,000).

Pendulum was founded in 2014 by Mr Sheahan, a former Ireland and Munster rugby player, and his wife Norma Sheahan.

Mr Sheahan was declared bankrupt in 2017 over legacy property debts and is no longer a director of the company behind Pendulum, although he continues to front the event. Norma Sheahan remains a director and was paid €27,100 last year, according to the accounts.