WOODFORD CAPITAL, the ultimate owner of the Roche family’s stake in energy group NTR, received a €23 million dividend last year.

NTR chairman Thomas Roche and his family own Woodford, which in turn holds close to 40 per cent of the alternative energy group through its subsidiaries, Conor Holdings and Dreamport.

Recent filings with the Companies Registration Office (CRO) show that Woodford received a €23 million dividend for the year ended May 31st, 2009.

Woodford in turn paid a €16 million dividend to an organisation called the Sharing Foundation, of which Anne Roche, Mr Roche’s wife, is a director. Woodford and the foundation both have the same registered address on Dublin’s Baggot Street.

The Sharing Foundation holds redeemable preference shares in Woodford. The company’s accounts state that it paid the €16 million dividend to the holder of those shares.

Dreamport holds the NTR shares directly, its owner is Conor Holdings, which is in turn controlled by Woodford.

Along with Thomas and Anne Roche and the Sharing Foundation, Woodford’s other shareholders are Conor, John, Michelle and Joanne Roche.

The stake in NTR is worth close to €200 million based on the group’s share price, which its website yesterday said was €2.50.

NTR’s shares are traded on the grey market and are not listed on any stock exchange.

The company started as a toll road developer and operator, but has largely left that business since the Government bought it out of a contract to operate tolls on Dublin’s motorway system.

The company is now focused on alternative energy and is developing wind and sun farms in the US. It controls US-based Stirling Energy, which is developing photovoltaic cells, the main new technology in solar power. In Ireland and Britain, NTR owns waste -management businesses.