Departing directors at Tedcastle shared €1.27m pay-off after sale

Departing directors at fuel business Tedcastle Group shared termination payments of €1.257 million last year after the family-owned company was sold.

The pay-off to the directors, which followed the takeover by Canada-based Irving Oil, contributed to the group recording pretax losses of €4.05 million in the 12 months to the end of March last.

New accounts for the Hillingdon investment Company Unlimited Company show that the business recorded the loss as revenues increased marginally to €1.09 billion last year.

The Tedcastle group operates the Top Oil brand. It owns a 55,000-tonne import terminal at Dublin Port and more than 200 service stations and 21 heating oil depots.

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Eight directors stepped down from the Hillingdon board on January 30th last year, with three directors appointed on the same day. Hillingdon recorded the pretax loss in part due to payments made to the departing directors and in part to reorganisation and transaction costs of €3.3 million concerning the Tedcastle group purchase.

Share-based payments of €10.6 million and pension costs of €1.36 million also contributed to the pretax loss.

Before the various costs, Hillingdon recorded an operating profit of €11.1 million – down 11 per cent on the operating profit of €12.57 million in fiscal 2018.

Numbers employed by the group last year increased from 479 to 544 as staff costs went up from €24.4 million to €32.4 million.

Share-based payments

The staff costs include the share-based payments of €10.6 million.

Pay to directors totalled €6.7 million that included the termination payments of €1.25 million and share-based payments of €4.3 million.

The group’s pre-tax loss also takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €4.13 million and operating lease payments of €2.7 million.

At the end of March last, Hillingdon had shareholder funds of €58.7 million and cash almost doubled to €11 million.

Separately, Irving acquired the Whitegate oil refinery in Cork from Philips 66 in August 2016. The refinery provides 40 per cent of the country’s petroleum needs.