O’Flaherty Holdings, the family-owned motor group that distributes Mercedes-Benz cars in Ireland, repaid €800,000 in Covid subsidies to the State last year after a surge in its sales and profits.
A note to financial statements recently filed for 2021 for MML Holdings, the group’s main entity, says it chose to avail of the taxpayer subsidies “with showrooms closed from the start of 2021 until the end of May and uncertainty at its height due to the continuing pandemic”.
It continued: “As the situation then improved significantly through the remainder of 2021 and confidence increased that the pandemic was behind us, the group chose to repay [€800,000] in full.”
The Government called last December for profitable companies that had claimed subsidies they didn’t necessarily need to consider repaying them to the State. It made the call after The Irish Times revealed that a slew of major businesses, including O’Flaherty Holdings, had paid their owners large dividends after receiving taxpayer Covid subsidies in 2020 after the arrival of the pandemic.
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Isle of Man
The company did not repay the almost €1.8 million of subsidies the O’Flaherty group received in 2020, when it also paid a similar-sized dividend to the O’Flaherty family via a holding entity in the Isle of Man.
MML’s recently signed-off 2021 accounts show it paid a slightly larger dividend to the family last year, of almost €1.82 million.
Despite the pandemic, the accounts show the group performed strongly last year, while its balance sheet is in rude health. Industry analysts have pointed out that car sales switched online while showrooms were closed for Covid, while other transactions that would otherwise have taken place in the early part of the year were simply deferred until later. The O’Flaherty group’s revenues rose by 27 per cent to €291.1 million, well above pre-pandemic levels.
The group’s pretax profits of almost €21.9 million were up 44 per cent on the prior year. MML had net assets on its balance sheet of €287 million at the end of the year, according to the accounts. Its finances last year were boosted by the €2.3 million sale of an investment property in Appian Way in Dublin. Its portfolio of remaining properties was valued at €43.3 million at the end of the year.
The group owns Motor Distributors Limited (MDL), which imports Mercedes-Benz cars into the State. It also owns a network of motor dealerships. The company was founded by Irish businessman Stephen O’Flaherty, who was the grandfather of the current generation owning the business.
