The company behind the Sporting Emporium, the Dublin city centre casino owned by Dermot Desmond, owes him €4.2 million, the latest financial accounts show.
The casino, which is located on St Anne’s Lane off Grafton Street, made a modest profit for the year of €39,417, down from its profit of €146,689 in 2022, which helped to trim its accumulated losses down to €2.6 million.
The company valued its fixed assets at €5.4 million and had current assets worth €1.8 million, which was mostly made up of €282,000 in cash and €1.5 million in amounts owed by unspecified debtors.
Meanwhile, it owed its creditors €4.5 million, a figure that has slowly declined over the past decade.
In previous years, that figure was as high as €7.5 million, but has been steadily whittled down as the casino continues to make modest profits.
The 2023 accounts also suggested that the company has recovered from the impact of Covid. The previous year the company had said that its liabilities, along with the “uncertainty arising from the outbreak of Covid-19″, had created “a material uncertainty regarding the ability of the company to continue as a going concern”. However, no such warning appears in the current financial statements.
Mr Desmond opened the casino in 2005. The accounts state that the company was formed “to develop and rent properties”, noting that its losses have “predominantly from costs incurred in the development and depreciation arising on the fit out of” the casino.
Mr Desmond remains the main backer of the Sporting Emporium, according to notes to the accounts, which state that it “continues to avail of and has access to additional funding from Bottin International Investments Limited,” one of his main investment vehicles.
The accounts also state that “the directors have received assurances from Bottin International investments Limited that liabilities of €4.2 million” will not be requested for at least 12 months. This sum has been provided interest free.
Mr Desmond’s son, Dery Desmond, was previously a director of the Sporting Emporium but he stepped down in June of last year along with Brian O’Sullivan, who had been a director since 2005.
They were replaced by Carol Markey, who is also a director of another Desmond-linked company called Zozimus Bar Limited, which operates a cocktail club next door to the casino.
The most recent accounts for Zozimus show the company had a loss of €619,354 at the end of December 2023, up from a loss of €581,649 the year before. It had tangible assets worth €1.1 million, cash of €992,172 and liabilities in the amount of €1.7 million.
Both the Sporting Emporium and Zozimus Bar Limited are owned by the same entity, an Isle of Man-based company called Zari Limited.
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