The EJ King Bar group, which owns hotels and bars in Dublin and Galway, made a pre-tax loss of €122,787 on a turnover of €9.7 million in the year to end February 2007, according to accounts just filed.
The group, which includes the four-star Westwood House Hotel, Galway and Schoolhouse Hotel, Dublin, as well as the EJ King Bar in Clifden, Co Galway, had a deficiency of shareholders' funds of €4.5 million at the year- end.
The accounts state that the holding company, EJ King Bar Ltd, has guaranteed the liabilities of its subsidiaries. The group is owned by Galway-based Terry Sweeney. He could not be contacted yesterday and there was no comment available from anyone on behalf of the group.
The accounts show turnover was static compared with the previous year, though pre-tax losses were down on the previous year, when the loss was €1 million.
The group's fixed assets were valued at €16 million at year end, down from €16.5 million at the end of the previous year.
The directors of the company are Mr Sweeney and Ann Fleming. Directors remuneration for the year was €370,028, down from €442,500 the previous year. The average number employed by the group during the year was 144, and total wages and salaries was €2.8 million.
The group had a bank loan of €5.7 million and a secured loan of €15.5 million at year-end. Net debt was €18.2 million.
In 2004, the group made a €2.98 million settlement with the Revenue Commissioners arising out of a bogus non-resident account investigation. In 2000, EJ King Bar Ltd made a tax settlement of €254,317 arising from the under-declaration of corporation tax and VAT.
