Events including Ireland's historic win over the All Blacks and a Billy Joel concert at the Aviva stadium last year contributed to the firm operating the stadium recording an operating profit of €6.9 million.
New accounts filed by New Stadium DAC show that it paid €2 million in dividends to be shared by its shareholders, the IRFU and the FAI. This came as the stadium firm recorded a pretax loss of €3.3 million, although this figure takes account of hefty non-cash depreciation charges of €10.12 million.
The pretax loss of €3.3 million represented a 5 per cent increase on the pretax losses of €3.14 million recorded in 2017.
The €6.9 million operating profit last year represents a slight decline on the operating profit of €7.15 million recorded in 2017.
Fees
Fees paid by the IRFU and the FAI to the stadium firm declined from €6.4 million to €5.8 million last year.
In turn, the firm made €750,000 in lease payments to the IRFU for the rent of the stadium land last year.
The firm’s shareholder funds stood at €159 million. Its cash pile increased from €4.2 million to €4.7 million.
