Colm Keena, Public Affairs Correspondent on the financial state of Treasury, the company run by John Ronan and Richard Barrett
Treasury Holdings is owned by John Ronan and Richard Barrett and, according to its website, "currently controls a property portfolio valued in excess of €4.8 billion". How much of this is owned by the duo is not revealed in the website and their company, Treasury Group Holdings, which has unlimited liability status, has not filed accounts to the Companies Registration Office since 2001. In that year the value of its capital and reserves was €194.5 million.
However, Ronan's 50 per cent stake in the Treasury group is held by way of a company he owns called Ardquade Ltd, and notes to its accounts for the year to the end of 2005, the latest on file, state that the Treasury group's total reserves at that date were €457 million, up from €288 million the year before. The notes also state that Treasury made a loss after tax that year of €2.4 million. The previous year Treasury lost €20.6 million, according to the notes.
Profit and loss figures for groups such as Treasury can be misleading. The group's strategy is to develop and hold onto commercial property in prime locations, while funding its activities with bank loans, the development and sale of residential and commercial property, the charging of property management fees, and through joint ventures. Profits can be weak in years of heavy investment and few sales.
Treasury has a 58.5 per cent stake in Real Estate Opportunities (REO), a listed property development company with net assets at June 2007 of £371 million (€533.6m). REO in turn has a 16.2 stake in China REO, a company involved in huge property development projects in China. Ronan and Barrett own a further 54 per cent of China REO through Treasury and other vehicles, a stake that would be worth £195.25 million (€280.8m).
These two listed companies allow Ronan and Barrett raise funds from other people while maintaining control of their operations. Overall, however, most of the value of their shareholdings in REO and CREO is contained in the net value of Treasury.
Some inkling as to the amount of wealth the two men have accumulated can be gleaned from the accounts of Ardquade. A calculation based on the net asset or capital and reserve figures of companies owned or controlled by Ardquade, and given in notes to the Ardquade accounts, comes to €362.5 million. In most cases the figures are as of December 2005, so the values have, no doubt, grown substantially since then.
The biggest assets in the accounts are Ronan's half share in Treasury Holdings, and his one-third share in the Spencer Dock Development Company Ltd. The latter had capital and reserves of €107 million at end of 2005. Barrett has equal shareholdings to Ronan in both these ventures. Ronan also has other assets which he owns outside the Ardquade structure and presumably Barrett has also. It would seem likely, therefore, that the pair own assets of a generally similar value.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Barrett described the conditions that existed in Ireland during the property boom, especially the coincidence of high appreciation rates for property values and low interest rates, as ones where huge returns on capital could be achieved. "It was a very potent cocktail, virtually guaranteeing good returns," he said. The Irish "cocktail" is not as potent now but conditions in economies such as China are still "supercharged", he said. He is now based in Shanghai.
Filed company accounts show Ronan personally owns a number of very valuable commercial properties around south Dublin city. The accounts show he, through Ardquade, owns 3 Burlington Road, valued at €16.8 million at the end of 2005, and an office building on Herbert Street, with a value of €42 million at the end of 2005, as well as other properties. A company called Jayfield Investments, owned equally by Ronan and Patrick McKillen, owns the Treasury building on Grand Canal Street, which had a value of €59 million at the end of 2005, according to Companies Office filings.