Pretax profits at engineering group Mercury rise by 26%

Pretax profits at the engineering group responsible for lighting at the national children’s hospital last year surged by 26.5 per cent to €78 million.

Revenues at Mercury Holdings UC rose by 42 per cent or €440 million from €1.041 billion to €1.481 billion last year.

The firm’s Ireland and UK revenues increased by €329.5 million from €453.6 million to €783 million, while European revenues amounted to €698 million.

In a year of substantial growth for the business, numbers employed increased by 724 or 39 per cent from 1,840 to 2,564, and staff costs increased from €149.23 million to €210.35 million.

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The main activity of the group – which has its HQ in Sandyford – is the design and installation of mechanical and electrical systems, and the value of its four-year contract with the HSE for work on the national children’s hospital is €157 million.

Aspects of Mercury’s work on the national children’s hospital include lighting and small power electrical installation; lighting control; lightning protection; fire alarms and MV/LV transformer systems.

The firm works with retailers, corporations and pharma businesses, and some of the firm’s other projects here include work on Regeneron’s Limerick plant, LinkedIn’s Dublin offices and the Irish Aviation Authority’s air traffic control tower at Dublin Airport.

A directors’ note with the accounts said that “the performance and development of the group is in line with the directors’ expectations”.

The business paid out a dividend of €40.58 million after paying a dividend of €33 million in 2020.

Ten directors served during 2021, and pay to directors increased from €3.8 million to €4.28 million.

The directors’ pay last year was made up of salary and benefits of €4.04 million and pension contributions of €241,021.

In 2017, management at Mercury Engineering finalised a deal to acquire the firm from the family of its founder Frank O’Kane.

At the end of last year accumulated profits stood at €168.8 million. The business’s cash funds increased from €211 million to €216.6 million. The group last year recorded post-tax profits of €65.08 million after paying corporation tax of €12.07 million.