The investment company TVC Holdings will return €50 mill- ion in cash to shareholders following a year in which investment opportunities were hard to find.

Addressing the company's agm which was held in Dublin yesterday, executive chairman Shane Reihill said that in spite of another poor economic year generally, the company's net asset value per share had grown, driven in particular by the sale of its holding in the TAS Group for €7.4 million.

In May, the company reported a pretax profit of €6.6 million and its intention to issue a special dividend of 49.5 cent per ordinary share, a product of limited investment opportunity.

Mr Reihill later said: “We were obviously looking for transactions; there was a very, very limited number of opportunities over the lasts number of years.

“We are still looking for transactions,” he added.

“We have a strong balance sheet; we have €75 million circa in net assets [and] no debt. Holding €80 million in cash indefinitely wasn’t in our shareholders’ interests.”

All shareholders voted in support of the dividend payment.