SEAN QUINN junior’s Belfry Hotel and Golf Course in England lost €163.7 million in 2008, according to accounts just filed by the company that owns the property.
The loss includes impairment charges of €90.7 million and the accounts state that the company’s assets have since fallen another €41 million in value.
The Belfry is a well-known luxury hotel that has hosted the Ryder Cup four times. It is located on 550 acres of land a short distance from Birmingham.
The company bought the exclusive hotel in 2005 for €270 million with financing from Bank of Ireland. The directors’ statement accompanying the most recent accounts for Quinn Property Investments Ltd state it believes the company’s tangible assets are now worth €88 million.
The accounts, signed on February 18th, 2011, show it had bank loans of €146.6 million at the end of 2008.
The accounts state that turnover was down to €35.7 million during 2008, from €46.2 million the previous year. The operating loss before exceptional items was €64.8 million.
The company and its subsidiaries are reliant on the support of their bankers in order to continue to meet day to day working capital requirements, according to the accounts.
The company and its subsidiaries owe substantial amounts to related Quinn companies which the directors of Quinn Property Investments said they do not believe will be paid in the forseeable future.
The company owed €102 million to Quinn Group Family Properties Ltd at the end of 2008, as well as €40 million to Quinn Finance and €1 million to Quinn Hotels.
At the end of 2008, the deficiency in shareholders’ funds for Quinn Property Investments was €167.5 million.
The company had an average of 459 employees during 2008, down from 507 the previous year. Total employment costs were €10.48 million, down from €13.7 million in 2007.
Directors received no pay. Sean Quinn snr, Liam McCaffrey, Dara O’Reilly and Sean Quinn jnr resigned as directors in September 2009. They were replaced by Collette Quinn and Kevin Lunney. Patricia Quinn remained a director. Sean Quinn jnr owns the sole issued share in the company.
A spokesman for the Quinn family said it had no comment to make on the latest results for the hotel.
Investments in Anglo by the Quinn family through contracts for difference and the use of the assets of the Quinn Group in these investments led to administrators being appointed to Quinn Insurance by the Financial Regulator.
In 2007 the Quinn Group wrote off €829 million it had advanced to Quinn family companies. Further write downs followed in 2008.
Sean Quinn snr, the founder of the Quinn group, stood down from his position as a director of Quinn Insurance in 2008 after it was fined €3.2 million for a failure to notify the regulator of a loan of €288 million from Quinn Insurance, to other firms in his group.