INVESTMENT GROUP NTR, which originally made its name running the West-Link Toll Bridge on Dublin’s M50, yesterday revealed one of the biggest non-banking losses in Irish corporate history.
The Dublin-based unlisted company recorded a loss of €381 million for the 12 months to the end of March 2011. In the previous year, NTR’s loss amounted to €285.5 million. The losses last year included impairment charges of €195.7 million relating largely to a failed solar investment in the US and its waste management operation in Ireland.
NTR, whose biggest shareholders are Tom Roche and his family and investment group One51, decided to write down fully its solar investment in Sterling Energy Systems (SES) in the US. This amounted to €42.4 million.
The company is seeking a third-party investor for SES.
NTR also booked a €62.2 million charge on its waste management activities, mostly in Ireland, and €28.1 million for “other” businesses.
The hefty losses were incurred in spite of a 35 per cent rise in revenues from “continuing operations”, driven by its US waste and wind divisions. Group revenues rose to €329.4 million last year from €244.7 million in the previous period. Its cash pile almost doubled to €112.4 million and it had no net debt.
NTR said its group ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) before impairments and other adjustments was €18.7 million, up from €4.9 million in fiscal 2010.
No dividend will be paid to shareholders, who will have an opportunity to air their views on the results when the company holds its annual meeting on September 8th.
NTR said its US-based wind, recycling and ethanol businesses performed well during the year, growing revenues and expanding their footprints.
Greenstar Recycling, which operates in north America, doubled its ebitda, the company said, though it declined to give a figure.
On the flip side, NTR said Greenstar Ireland faced a “challenging operating environment” with waste volumes “significantly reduced”, margins eroded and reduced landfill prices.
NTR’s chief executive Michael McNicholas, who succeeded Jim Barry in the role earlier this year, said its US businesses were performing well, except for in solar.
“It’s important to note that NTR has invested about €800 million in the US since 2008 [and] just under 30 per cent of that was in solar. All of the others have performed well.”
When asked about current trading and if NTR might return to the black in the current financial year, Mr McNicholas said: “I would expect our results for financial year 2012 to be a good improvement on where they are in 2011. We’ve taken very hard decisions to tackle our costs, to tackle the operating performance of the business. There is some more work to do.”
Mr McNicholas also defended NTR’s strategy as a diversified investment group.
“I’m a very strong believer in portfolios,” he said. “Nobody gets it right every time. We take risk-capital investments. It is cyclical. It’s all about a point in time.
“We have a strong portfolio of assets and we are beginning to see them come out of the economic turmoil of the past few years.
“Portfolio management is core to what we do in NTR and will continue to be so in the future.”
Founded in 1978 to develop and operate toll roads, NTR has since diversified into waste, water and a variety of renewable energy projects. Its share price – traded on a grey market – peaked at €7 but currently trades at just 55 cent.