Sepam: Clonmel company has operations worldwide

Sepam, which was founded by Gus Kearney in 1976, is a Clonmel, Co Tipperary-based engineering, procurement, management and construction business that, according to its website, operates in the US, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Australia and the former Soviet Union.

Mr Kearney (60), who was involved with the Kent Group prior to setting up Sepam, uses an address in Bahrain in his filings to the Companies Registration Office.

A number of his children are now involved with the group, which is owned by Mr Kearney.

Shareholders’ funds

The latest accounts for the investment holding company

Sepam Group

are for 2011 when it recorded a loss of $3,534, compared with a pre-tax profit of $157,414 the previous year.

There are no publicly available consolidated accounts or accounts showing the combined profit of the company and its subsidiaries. Shareholders’ funds at year end were $38.5 million.

Subsidiary companies listed in the accounts are in Ireland, Jersey, the UK, Australia, Kazakhstan, India, the Netherlands, the US, the British Virgin Islands, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Mongolia, Colombia and Canada.

The company's immediate parents are two companies based in the Isle of Man, Sepam (IOM) One Ltd and Sepam (IOM) Three Ltd, with Sepam Holdings, an unlimited company based in Ireland, being the ultimate parent.

Loans

Irish and American building companies owned by members of the family, as well as individual members of the family, a farm, a partnership and group companies, were among related party entities that had loans totalling $9 million from Sepam Group subsidiaries at the end of 2011, according to the accounts.

At year end Sepam Specialist Ltd, an Irish subsidiary, had loans totalling $4.7 million to related parties. This exceeded 10 per cent of it relevant assets, which is a breach of the Companies Act.

The Sepam Group accounts say that on becoming aware of this, the directors put in place arrangements to remedy the breach.