Griffith College profits hit

Griffith College, the privately-owned third-level educational institution in Dublin, made a profit after tax of €441,504 in the year to end June 2004.

The figure compares with €941,743 the previous year, according to accounts just filed.

In July 2004 the company that runs the college, Bellerophon Ltd, granted a 20-year lease on a 1.3 acre site within the college campus, at an annual rent of €195,886. The rent will increase under seven-year reviews by a compound annual indexation rate of 2 per cent, according to the accounts.

The majority shareholder in Bellerophon, chairman Diarmuid Hegarty, is a majority partner in the consortium, which has built a 633-bed student accommodation block on the site.

Accumulated losses for Bellerophon at the end of June 2004 were €1.58 million, representing remaining losses from the 1991 purchase and development of the former Griffith Barracks in Dublin.

The average number of staff at the college during the financial year was 192. Employment costs were €6.37 million. Directors' emoluments were €416,922.

The accounts value the Griffith campus at €21.6 million, when the value of that part of the campus used by a related company, Griffith College Publications Ltd, is added to that owned by Bellerophon.

Griffith College Publications prints manuals and books used by students at Griffith College.

The abridged balance sheet for Griffith College Publications for the period to end June 2004 shows shareholders' funds increased to €3 million from €2.4 million.

Mr Hegarty owns 65 of the 100 issued shares in Bellerophon, with Reginald Callanan owning 30 and Pierce Kent owning five.

Mr Hegarty said the college now has 8,000 students, 3,200 of whom are full time. He said the number of students at the college has increased more than tenfold since 1991.

The courses given by the college include business studies, business and law, law, computing, journalism and computing science. The college is expanding the number of post-graduate courses it offers, with masters degrees in journalism and law in the pipeline, Mr Hegarty said.

A new €14 million lecture block on the campus is due for completion in March 2006.

"We're very much still in expansion mode," Mr Hegarty said.