THE COMPANY behind Dublin’s Mount Carmel hospital has taken a €40 million write-down on the hospital it bought from the Little Company of Mary Sisters in 2006.
Accounts filed for Mount Carmel Medical Group for 2008 show the company incurred an impairment charge of €39.6 million for the year. Of this, €24.9 million relates to a writedown of the goodwill asset, €1.2 million relates to other fixed assets, while the company’s property asset has been written down by €13.5 million according to the accounts.
While no price was disclosed at the time of the sale, it was estimated that the company, then known as Harlequin Healthcare, paid approximately €60 million for the south Dublin hospital.
The accounts show that the heavily indebted company, which also runs the Aut Even Hospital in Kilkenny and St Joseph’s Hospital in Sligo, has been unable to meet capital repayments on part of its bank debt that fell due for payment at the end of December 2009.
The group is in discussions with its bank about restructuring its loans, which includes a €60 million facility provided by AIB, which is secured by a fixed and floating charge on the land and buildings of Mount Carmel hospital.
The delay in filing the 2008 accounts – which were signed off last Friday – is due to these ongoing negotiations with the bank.
The accounts state that there “can be no certainty that these discussions with the bank will be successfully completed on a commercially acceptable basis or at all”.
Chief executive Niall Donnelly said yesterday that discussions with lenders were ongoing and the company was hopeful the loans would be restructured. He said revenues at the group increased from €55.8 million in 2007 to €63.5 million in 2008, while underlying ebidta (earnings before interest, depreciation, tax and amortisation) was up from €2.3 million to €5.7 million in 2008.
Mr Donnelly said the group was confident it would see an increase in revenue and a further improvement in ebidta in its 2009 financial year.
Mount Carmel Medical Group is controlled by developer and businessman Jerry Conlon. Mr Conlon is one of the so-called Anglo 10, a group of customers who were lent €451 million to buy a 10 per cent stake in the bank following the unwinding of Seán Quinn’s stake in Anglo, which he had acquired through contracts for difference.
Mr Donnelly declined to say whether loans related to the company had passed to Nama. Mr Conlon is owed €35 million by the company through a director’s loan.
Separate accounts for the three constituent hospitals in the group show that Mount Carmel Medical Group (South Dublin), which controls Mount Carmel hospital in Churchtown, posted a net loss of €29.1 million, mainly due to the impairment charge.
The company which controls Aut Even Hospital posted a 2008 pre-tax loss of €1.7 million, despite revenues increasing by 22 per cent to €16.5 million. St Joseph’s Hospital posted a loss of €1.5 million in 2008, bringing accumulated losses to €3.5 million.
