PM Group aims to expand into China

ENGINEERING AND architecture business PM Group, which was project manager on the Lansdowne Road stadium makeover, is looking at expanding into China next year.

Accounts for the privately held group’s parent, Project Management Holdings, show that profits before tax were flat last year at €8.17 million, while turnover grew by just over 5 per cent to €266 million from €252 million in 2008.

Its 2009 profits included a once-off €713,000 benefit from the sale of a subsidiary, PMI Software.

The figures show that a third of its turnover came from operations outside the Republic, which was responsible for €177.7 million of its 2009 sales.

Chief executive Pat McGrath said yesterday that the company has continued to expand its overseas operations this year.

It opened an office in Bangalore in India, where it is providing engineering and project management services to the local biopharmaceutical industry. It already has an office in Singapore.

“We are looking at China,” Mr McGrath said. “That has to be a big target for us. No decision has been made, but that is the most likely place for us to go next year.”

PM employs around 900 people in the Republic and 800 in various bases overseas, including Europe, the US and Asia. Mr McGrath said much of the work is done in Ireland, but explained that it needs a local presence in its different markets as well.

The company was project manager on the rebuilding of Lansdowne Road, now known as the Aviva Stadium, which opened this year.

Mr McGrath said that the fall-off in such large-scale projects here means that much of its growth is going to come from abroad in the near future.

Most of PM’s work in the Republic comes from multinationals, and the rate at which pharmaceutical and other such companies have been establishing new bases, or expanding existing ones, here has been slowing in recent years.

“There have not been as many greenfield projects as we have seen in the past,” Mr McGrath said yesterday. “But the IDA has been doing a good job at bringing in new mobile investment, and there will be new projects.”

PM Group has no exposure to residential and commercial building, nor was it involved in property development or speculation.

The group grew alongside the multinational pharmaceutical and chemical industries that grew in the Republic over the last four decades, and used this as a base to expand its operations overseas.

Its balance sheet shows that it had net assets of €36.6 million at the end of last year. Net funds at the end of the year were over €8 million.