RENEWABLE ENERGY group NTR saw its losses rise to €210.6 million in the year to end of March 2010, up from €22.4 million a year earlier.

Chief executive Jim Barry said this was not a poor trading outcome, as a core part of NTR’s business model involves investing and building value in pre-revenue development companies.

Some €106.5 million was spent on developing NTR’s solar and wind energy businesses, and covering central overheads, during the financial year, and this had a negative impact on the group’s bottom line.

On the trading side of NTR’s portfolio, its core operating businesses Greenstar Ireland and Greenstar North America delivered earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, (and impairments), of € 30.8 million, down from €35.5 million a year earlier.

Deliberate action had to be taken in these waste management businesses in order to maintain sustained profitability, because of the “horrendous macro environment”, Mr Barry said.

He added that trading conditions remain challenging for Greenstar because the macro-economic cycle has not had “the lift we had all hoped for”.

A net impairment charge of €96 million was recorded against NTR’s waste management and solar businesses. On the waste management side, NTR took the view that it should write down some of the “carrying value” of the Greenstar businesses because the macro-economic context is so tough, he said. The decision by NTR’s solar division to delay the roll-out of new technology also contributed to the overall impairment charge.

Last month NTR announced the sale of its Irish road assets for €50 million, while in June it agreed to sell the UK arm of its Greenstar business for £135 million. Mr Barry said yesterday that the key in the current market environment is liquidity, and the decision to sell these businesses was “all about having cash resources and a strong balance sheet”.

The group’s cash resources stood at €64.7 million at March 31st, 2010, and its assets amounted to €1.38 billion.

"Our strategy throughout the year has been to maintain strong liquidity for the group whilst making targeted investments in key value-creating parts of the portfolio," Mr Barry said in a statement. However, he told The Irish Timesyesterday that he was "much less inclined" to spend cash reserves on new investments than to retain it within the group.