John Rocha looks set to share €11m windfall

One of the country’s best known designers, John Rocha, looks set to share in a pretax €11.5-million windfall from his design firm.

Mr Rocha – who celebrates his 70th birthday this August – is moving to voluntarily wind up his Dublin-based design company, Three Moon Design Unlimited.

Declaration of solvency documents lodged with the Companies Office show that the firm has assets valued at €11.6m and liabilities of €100,429, leaving a net €11.5m to be shared out among company shareholders before tax.

The €11.5m dividend will be paid out to the firm’s three shareholders, two Isle of Man-registered firms, Basilik Holdings Limited and TMD (IOM) Unlimited, and the Hong Kong based Hatari Express Limited.

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A document confirming the voluntary wind-up of the business declares that the directors have stated that the company will be able to pay off its debts in full.

Paul White has been appointed as liquidator of the Rocha firm. The company’s most recent accounts show that the company was sitting on accumulated profits of €16 million at the end of 2021.

In advance of the winding-up, John Rocha’s wife, Odette, stepped down as director last month.

The wind-up of the Rocha design firm comes more than a year after the Rochas sold their four-bedroomed Victorian home at Leeson Park, Ranelagh, Dublin for just under the asking price of €3.95 million.

The sale followed the Rochas deciding to make London their permanent base in order to be close to their three children living there.

The Hong Kong-born Mr Rocha moved away from high-end, luxurious women’s clothing in 2014 but continued with lifestyle licensing deals.

Mr Rocha, who first moved to Ireland in 1978 after studying design at Croydon School of Art in the UK, was able to extend his design portfolio through many collaborations, from glass design with Waterford Crystal to residential, leisure and hotel projects throughout the world.

Mr Rocha’s daughter Simone has continued the Rocha name in the world of fashion by carving out her own niche in the business.

[ Simone Rocha: ‘I have my family, my studio, my atelier. I feel privileged’ ]

In 2010, Rocha was one of six contemporary, internationally renowned Irish fashion designers to feature on An Post stamps and the one-off series also included Louise Kennedy, Philip Treacy, Orla Kiely and Paul Costelloe.