FIONA REDDAN

Investment group TVC Holdings said yesterday it plans to return 90 per cent of its balance sheet to shareholders, comprising about €91 million in cash and UTV shares, because it is unable to find profitable new investments in Ireland.

The company, chaired by former Tedcastle Holdings chief executive Shane Reihill, said "too much capital is chasing deals" in this country and it is unable to find new investments that would give it a sufficient return on its capital.

“A lot of capital has been put to work in Ireland in recent years, a lot of which has Government support,” said Mr Reihill, referring to the proliferation of investment funds to have entered the market in recent years, several of which are backed by the National Pension Reserve Fund (NPRF).

Suggestion
He said he doesn't agree with the suggestion that TVC "is being chased out of the market" by State money.

Mr Reihill said the decision to return cash to shareholders had come after a strategic review of its operations.

He said: “In the light of both the continuing lack of suitable investment opportunities and the current equity funding environment, the board of TVC proposes to make a large capital distribution to shareholders and, over a number of years, to carry out an orderly realisation of TVC’s remaining [10 per cent of] assets to maximise value.

Strategy
"We believe this strategy is in the best interests of all our shareholders."

The company plans to cancel its Dublin and London stock exchange listing by July and make the five staff at its head office redundant.

TVC, which recently exited from its investment in hotel company Dalata and owns 10 per cent of UTV and a minority stake in software company CR2, yesterday announced its preliminary results for the year to the end of March.

Its pre-tax profit rose to €33.4 million from €6.6 million, mainly due to the disposal of its Dalata stake, and selling part of its stake in UTV and its shareholding in Shenwick Network Systems.