Profits at building firm down by 85%

PRETAX PROFITS at one of the country’s largest building firms, PJ Walls dropped 85 per cent last year after revenues decreased by €100 million.

Accounts just filed by PJ Walls Holdings Ltd and subsidiaries, show the group recorded a pretax profit of €1.2 million to the end of December last after recording pretax profits of €8.3 million in 2008. PJ Walls operates in Ireland and Britain with developments in the entertainment, health, education and retail sectors. According to the directors’ report “the directors view the future with confidence”.

The filings show the group recorded an operating loss of €943,337 after last year’s revenue dropped €100 million or 40 per cent from €246.3 million to €146.4 million.

However, interest payments totalling €2.2 million received by the group resulted in the pretax profit of €1.2 million. The filings show the group had retained profits of €56.4 million at the end of last year.

The accounts show the group’s cost of sales last year decreased by 41 per cent from €220.4 million to €129 million while the group’s administrative expenses increased marginally from €17.8 million to €18.2 million.

The filings show that the numbers employed by the group last year reduced by 54 from 423 to 369 with the group’s employment costs reducing by 26 per cent from €31.2 million to €23 million.

The accounts show that the directors’ emoluments decreased by some 42 per cent from €2.3 million to €1.3 million with directors’ pension contributions decreasing from €1.1 million to €596,500.

The returns confirm that the group had property held for development valued at €55 million and work in progress at €78 million, while the group’s total bank borrowings at the end of 2009 were €93.4 million.

The group did not pay a dividend last year after paying a dividend of €100,000 in 2008.

In the group’s transactions with its directors, the accounts confirm that Finance and Property Ltd of which group finance director Shaun Green is a director received €604,966 for consultancy services in 2009, while €681,690 was paid to PAV Consulting Services Ltd of which group director, Patrick Veale was also a director.