The former owners of DID Electrical, the Houlihan family, paid themselves a €11 million dividend in specie (in asset form) before the sale of the business to tech retail group Select in 2023.
Accounts for DID Electrical Appliances Ltd show that the €11 million dividend in specie payout was made up of freehold premises assets and post acquisition, the company also paid out a cash dividend of €1.5 million to its new owners.
Revenues at DID Electrical Appliances Ltd in the 18 months to the end of September last totalled €142.17 million as it recorded pretax profits of €519,672
Profits were hit by an exceptional cost of €3.34 million that included “other costs related to sale completion” of €677,680, fixed assets transferred and written down of €2.15 million and other write down provisions of €677,680.
The Select group – which formerly operated the Compu b brand before rebranding to Select – completed the purchase of DID Electrical in December adding 23 stores to the group and before the DID Electrical purchase, the Select Group was a premium Apple reseller across 34 locations in Ireland and the UK.
Select is owned by its management team of four directors, led by managing director Ciaran McCormack and financial director Alan Victor.
Separate group accounts lodged by its parent Select Technology Sales and Distribution Group Ltd show that the purchase of DID Electrical Appliances (Holdings) Limited and DID Electrical Appliances Limited was discharged by cash consideration including costs of €3.17 million.
From the date of acquisition on December 12th, 2023 to the end of September last, the DID Electrical business contributed €74.2 million to group revenues.
The accounts for Select Technology Sales and Distribution Group Ltd show that the purchase of DID Electrical contributed to revenues at the combined group increasing by €106.3 million or 61 per cent from €173.1 million to €279.43 million in the 12 months to the end of September last.
As a result of the increased revenues, pretax profits more than doubled rising from €1.16 million to €2.52 million
In their review of the year with the accounts, the directors said “tight market conditions remain, particularly in the UK retail and business markets, while sales in the Irish retail and business market sectors performed very well, although product release cycles remain challenging”.
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The group paid dividends of €200,000 during the year.
A breakdown of revenues shows that Irish element last year almost tripled from €53.56 million to €160.58 million while UK revenues dipped marginally from €119.55 million to €118.84 million.
As a result of the DID acquisition numbers employed increased by 299 from 332 to 631 as staff costs almost tripled from €10.18 million to €27.07 million.
Directors shared €1.3 million in remuneration made up of €1.12 million in pay and €240,328 in pension contributions.
