Sales at the Northern Ireland operations of Life Style Sports grew by £1.76m (€2m) to £7.2m last year, according to accounts just filed. Pre-tax profits at the retailer fell slightly to £300,383 in the year ending September 2016, amid a rise in the costs of sales and distribution. The Northern Irish company, which is part of the group owned by the Stafford family, had retained profits of £1.57m at the end of the period. Life Style has 63 outlets across the island of Ireland.
DCC shares are on the up
Analysts at Davy have forecast a 13% upside on shares in DCC and set an £80 price target for the diversified investment group. The broker said DCC was “positioned for another good year” and had an “outperform” on its shares. The Dublin group reported that trading was in line with expectations at its annual meeting last week. DCC shares are trading at just over £70 and Davy said recent share price pull-back was due to movements in the bond market.
Fleta snaps up Spanish loans
Spanish bank Ibercaja has sold a portfolio of 505 bad loans to Irish-registered company Fleta Issuer for €489m. Fleta Issuer is registered at an address in Dublin’s Molesworth Street. Loans advanced to finance the purchase of building sites accounted for 43% of the portfolio. Spanish banks are still in the process of develeraging their balance sheets following the country’s property crash. Ibercaja has decreased the volumes of bad development loans by 57%, or €1.1bn, since 2014.
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Cost-cutting yields results at 123
Pre-tax profits at insurance broker 123 rose to €10.4m last year, from €9.8m in 2015. Revenues at the firm, which is owned by RSA, fell by more than €2m to €29.1m but the directors said cost-cutting yielded results. Staff numbers fell to 187 last year, from 246 in 2015. A €8.5m dividend is being paid to RSA.
Brendan chiefs in wind-up bid
The directors of a property fund that was co-founded by financial adviser Eddie Hobbs have petitioned to wind up the company after it suffered heavy losses on investments in the US. The petition to wind up Brendan Investments Pan European Property is due to be heard in the High Court on July 24.
Brendan Investments raised almost €13m from small investors and bought properties in Germany and the US. It lost €2.4m in 2014 and has since had to forfeit scores of houses it bought in Detroit. Hobbs resigned as a director in March 2015. The remaining directors are Vincent Regan and Hugh O’Neill, both based in Cork.