Loss of €911,000 by Shelbourne Markets in year

Financial spread betting business, Shelbourne Markets, lost €911,000 in the year running up to its sale to London-based ETX Capital, the latest figures show.

Shelbourne's owner SFS Markets sold the business to Monecor Ltd, which trades as ETX, in July last year. It was put on the market some time before and reportedly attracted four bids.

Accounts made available this week show that the company’s operations, based on around 10,000-11,000 spread trading clients, lost €911,612 in the 12 months ended July 31st 2014.

The figures also show the sale resulted in it recording a once-off loss of €376,171 resulting from the cost of staff redundancies, contract terminations, depreciation and deferred rent.

Sale

As the payment for the sale of its business is tied to what Monecor earns from former SFS clients, the company made no money from the deal in 2014.

The accounts state that SFS will recognise any gains from the sale as they arise.

The operating losses, once-off charge and its interest bill combined to leave SFS Markets with a pre-tax loss for the year of €1.33 million.

Revenues plunged to €968,609 in 2014 from the €3.23 million during the 12 months ended July 31st 2013. SFS lost €374,008 over that period.

Shelbourne was originally bought out of Worldspreads in a deal backed by clients and staff at Merrion Capital in 2009 and rebranded as Marketspreads.

In April 2012, the Central Bank suspended Marketspread's licence for three weeks, citing concerns over audit and capital adequacy.

Irregularities

Its problem dated back to 2009 but did not come to light until late in 2011, when its board discovered a number of irregularities, including the fact that former directors Brian O’Neill and Fergus Rice, who led the buyout from Worldspreads, had diverted €1.4 million to another company,

Sportspreads

.

The High Court ajudicated both men bankrupt early last year after they failed to pay €1.2 million of a €1.68 million judgement that resulted from that.

Licence

The Central Bank restored the licence after it was satisfied all issues had been dealt with. The company then rebranded as Shelbourne Markets.

Shelbourne employs 16 in Dublin 4 and is owned by the Curran family and management. Mr Curran's father, the late Ray Curran was a former chairman of Merrion Capital and a key executive with the Jefferson Smurfit Group.