Lansdowne stadium firm nets €4.7m profit

Project Management Holdings, the engineering group involved in building the new Lansdowne Road stadium in Dublin, made an after-tax profit of €4.69 million in the year to end December 2004, according to accounts filed recently.

The accounts show the company, which has been involved in managing projects for multinational clients in Ireland since the 1970s - mainly through its Project Management Limited subsidiary - is becoming increasingly involved in projects overseas.

Turnover in 2004 was €103.98 million, down from €113.85 million in 2003. The bulk of the turnover (€91.3 million) was in Ireland, but the group was also active in the UK (€5.35 million), "other countries" (€7 million), and in the US (€255,385). Turnover can be affected by the date at which major multi-year projects near completion.

Project Management employed an average of 668 people during 2004, with 559 of these being technical staff. Total employment costs were €40.88 million, according to the accounts. A spokeswoman said that when consultants were taken into account, the group currently employed 1,300 people.

Directors' emoluments were €1.96 million, up from €1.85 million in 2003. The dividend payout in 2004 was €1.686 million.

Based on shareholdings disclosed in the accounts, managing director Pat McGrath would have received dividend payments of about €244,000, while two other directors, Brian Gallagher and Séamus Kelly, would have received in the region of €130,000 each. Another director, John Egan, would have got a dividend payment of about €60,000.

The company - which is a multi-discipline design, engineering, architectural and project management organisation - is 75 per cent owned by senior management and staff, with the staff participating by way of an employee share participation scheme. Since 1988 the UK Foster Wheeler company has held a 25 per cent stake.

Accounts show the company has net assets of €20 million, and bank loans of €10 million. The group had cash of €20.1 million at the end of the year, up from €14.9 million the previous year.

The spokeswoman said clients include Pfizer, Glaxo Smithkline, Elan, Boston Scientific, Intel and IBM. Project Management has also worked for Dublin Airport, Dublin Bus, OPW and Bord Gáis. It is currently working on the master plan for Dublin Airport.

The spokeswoman said knowledge and experience gained through working with its clients here had led to those clients seeking its support when working on projects abroad.

The group has subsidiaries in the UK, the US, Poland and Russia. It has secured a number of projects for multinational clients in Poland in the past year.

It is currently supervising infrastructural projects worth €250 million in eastern Europe and €200 million in other parts of Europe. Its Russian subsidiary was established in 2003.

The group also has a consulting arm that has carried out work in 20 countries in 2004, including in Estonia, Macedonia, Uzbekistan and China.

The group has a strategic alliance with US company CRB, a specialist in biotech engineering.

It now has the expertise in Ireland to fully engineer major biotech projects that up to now were carried out in the US.