Key management personnel at the country’s largest waste company, Beauparc Utilities, shared a €52.8 million windfall arising from the sale of the business last year.
Beauparc owns the Panda and Greenstar waste firms and last year, businessman Eamon Waters sold Beauparc Utilities to Australian financial services giant Macquarie.
The value of the deal was not disclosed but it was reported to have been in the region of €1 billion which provided a windfall of around €367 million for Mr Waters.
Now, new 2021 accounts for Beauparc Utilities Holdings Ltd show that key management personnel received €52.85 million in cash settled share based payments when the business’s management incentive plan was realised on the sale of the group in August 2021.
The €52.85 million payout makes up the bulk of exceptional cost of €56.29 million that reduced the group’s operating profits from €61.1 million to €4.48 million last year.
Finance costs of €8.57 million resulted in a pretax loss of €3.6 million for the group.
The business continued on its growth path last year when revenues increased 21 per cent to €640.76 million.
The business’s pretax loss of €3.6 million also takes account of combined non-cash depreciation and amortisation costs last year of €51.3 million.
A note attached states that the acquisition costs relate to professional fees incurred both in the acquisitions and the sale including the management incentive plan and the exceptional costs also include €2.79 million in restructuring and other integration costs last year.
Numbers employed last year increased by 91 rising from 2,112 to 2,203 as staff costs increased from €90.27m to €147 million with the €52.85 million payout to management being the chief factor behind the sharp rise in staff costs.
The directors state that during the year the Group completed the acquisition of 92.5 per cent of Exomex (Ireland) Limited for €16.7 million.
The Directors state that they “are very pleased with the integration of the business within the Beauparc Utilities Holdings Group and the Group are benefiting from significant operational synergies”.
The group’s accumulated profits at the end of last year totalled €28.24 million as shareholder funds amounted to €108 million.
