Company owned by Daft.ie founders shares pretax dividend of €7.4m

A company owned by the founders of Daft.ie, Eamonn and Brian Fallon, last year shared a pretax dividend of €7.44 million.

The dividend payout of €7.44 million to the Fallons’ DML Capital Ltd was part of an overall €19.49 million dividend paid out by Distilled Ltd which operates Adverts.ie Daft.ie, Gumtree.ie and Donedeal.ie.

The group paid out the dividend as Distilled Ltd’s pretax profits increased by 13 per cent to €9.49 million.

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Accounts filed by Distilled Ltd show that the online business enjoyed the surge in profits as revenues increased by 9 per cent from €33.76 million to €36.67 million in 2022.

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The Daft.ie property website was established in 1997 by the Fallons and they own DML Capital Ltd on a 50-50 basis.

The dividend payout of €7.44 million to the Fallons’ DML Capital follows the company receiving a dividend of €5.87 million in 2021 — €13.3 million over the two years.

Distilled Ltd was only established in 2015 after Daft.ie operations along with that of sister company Adverts.ie were merged with Norway-based Schibsted Media’s Donedeal.ie. Distilled and Schibsted each have a 50 per cent shareholding in the group.

The overall dividend payout of €19.49 million followed a dividend payout of €15.37 million in 2021.

Details of the dividend payouts show that the Norwegian owned Adevinta Classified Media Ireland Limited received dividends of €9.7 million in 2022.

Also included in the dividend payout was a €1.94 million paid out to directors of Distilled Ltd while TNK Associates received €343,728.

A statement from Distilled said that Adverts.ie consolidated its position as the nation’s leader in second-hand goods and continued to thrive in 2022, recording a steady 34 per cent growth increase in ads placed compared to pre-Covid levels.

The group also said that DoneDeal Motors, an online automotive marketplace on DoneDeal.ie, became Ireland’s leading motor site in 2022.

R&D investment

Distilled also said that Daft.ie recorded a “robust 7 per cent year-on-year increase” in residential property sales volumes in 2022 versus 2021, helped by growth in new home completions.

Distilled makes an annual investment of €8 million in research, development and technology.

The Distilled group business last year recorded post-tax profit of €7.5m after paying corporation tax of €1.96 million.

Numbers employed increased by six to 140 as staff costs increased by 7 per cent to €12.59 million. The workforce today has grown to more than 150 personnel.

Directors’ pay in 2022 was €636,154.

The profit last year takes account of non-cash amortisation costs of €6.09 million.

The group’s shareholder funds was €84.69 million and cash funds reduced from €14.85 million to €8.69 million.