Losses at NCB rise to €1.2m from €77,000

LOSSES AT NCB Stockbrokers widened last year as the company booked a €1.2 million charge from the closure of its London office and a reorganisation of its activities in Dublin.

Latest accounts for NCB Group Limited and Subsidiaries, which is part-owned by the Quinn Group, show that it made a loss after tax of €1.6 million for the year to the end of November 2010. This compared with a deficit of €77,000 in the previous 12 months.

Revenues were flat at €27.3 million while operating costs declined marginally to €28.1 million.

When the restructuring charge is stripped out, the company was at break even last year at a pre-tax profit level. It had cash of €22.7 million on its balance sheet at the year end and no net debt.

The directors’ report states that they were “satisfied with the level of turnover and the result achieved in a competitive market”.

NCB, which was founded in the 1980s by Irish financier Dermot Desmond, recorded an operating loss of just under €2 million last year. This compared with an operating loss of €798,000 in 2009.

Investment revenue of €983,000 and finance costs of €243,000 left it with a pre-tax loss of €1.2 million in 2010. This compared with a loss of €66,000 in 2009.

The company’s corporation tax charge of €351,000 brought its total loss for the period to €1.6 million.

No dividends were paid to shareholders, who had received a payment of €1.2 million in 2009.

NCB is majority owned by management and staff. Quinn Group, the diversified manufacturing, leisure and financial company formerly controlled by Seán Quinn and his family, owns 25 per cent of the stockbroker.

Liam McCaffrey, a former head of the Quinn Group and a close associate of Mr Quinn, resigned from the board of NCB on November 30th, 2010.

The accounts show that NCB’s staff costs rose to €13.3 million last year from €12.8 million in 2009. The stockbroker employs about 130 staff.

The level of client funds held on deposit in bank accounts declined in the period to €207.8 million from €317.6 million in 2009.

This is believed to have been the result of many clients switching funds from cash into bonds during the year.