Pretax profits at Lisney up 30%

JAMES NUGENT, the newly appointed managing director of property firm Lisney, has said he is satisfied with the company’s performance last year.

The firm’s pretax profit increased by 30 per cent from €427,793 to €560,132.

Operating profits jumped 81 per cent from €466,114 to €846,149 in the 12 months to the end of March last year, according to accounts just filed.

The lower increase in pre-tax profit compared to operating profit is attributable to the company taking a property writedown of €269,738. It increased its operating profits despite of the firm’s gross profit decreasing by 4 per cent from €8.9 million to €8.5 million last year.

The abridged accounts do not provide a turnover figure. Mr Nugent said revenues declined by less than 5 per cent while operating expenses declined by 7 per cent, from €8.5 million to €7.8 million.

Mr Nugent, who took up his new role this week, said that given what the industry was going through, he was satisfied with how the company performed last year.

He said the firm would record a profit in the current financial year.

“We have clawed back some market share and revenues will be much the same. It is a difficult industry to be in at the moment, but our performance is down to a very good team of staff that are able to produce the results.”

He added: “We have very good fiscal management. We continue to be in profit, have increased cash and paid down debt and they are all very positive.”

In their report accompanying the accounts, the directors said as a result of the continuing stress in the property market, the firm had focused on providing “recovery services”.

They said managing property and active asset management dealing with distressed situations were likely to become more of a focus for their clients.

“The directors expect existing market conditions to remain for the foreseeable future, but are confident that they have sufficient resources in place, namely our talented and creative people, to deal with them.”

The company’s cash last year increased from €190,127 to €355,362 while its shareholder funds at the end of last year stood at €1.94 million.

The numbers employed at the firm declined from 103 to 96, with employment costs fell from €5.6 million to €4.9 million. Remuneration for directors reduced from €1.3 million to €1 million.