Irish insurance broker racks up profit of €8m

One of the country’s biggest independent insurance brokers is sitting on profits of almost €8 million after defying the downturn with a strong performance in recent years.

Charles McCarthy Insurances, which has 14 offices and almost 150 staff, made pre-tax profits of €1.4million in the year to the end of January.

The profit was up from €1.3 million in the previous financial year, and brought accumulated profits at the business to €7.8 million.

The directors of the Cork-based firm said it had ‘‘continued to perform well under tough trading conditions, despite the overall downturn in the economy exerting pressure on many clients’’.

They said the downturn had caused business activity to fall off, but that had been offset by insurance premiums stabilising in some parts of the market.

The directors also said that successful ‘‘business initiatives’’ had helped the company’s performance.

The McCarthy insurance group was founded almost 60 years ago in Fermoy, Co Cork.

It is one of the main brokerages behind Bestquote.ie, which is owned by a group of independent brokers and now has more than 250,000 policy holders.

The firm sold shares in group companies for €2.5 million last year, leaving it with investments valued at €5.5 million at the end of January. A dividend of €15,000 was paid to the company’s shareholders. The previous year, a dividend of €47,349 was paid.

The business employed 146 people last year, and had a total wage bill of €5.6 million.

The three directors of the group - chairman Charles McCarthy, managing director Paul Kavanagh and Brendan Harrington - shared €868,700 in pay and pension contributions.

The firm had bank loans and overdrafts of €6.4million at the end of January. AIB has personal guarantees from the directors totalling €10.1 million, as well as a company guarantee of €1.5 million and mortgages over a number of the company’s premises.

A total of €6 million was owed to trade creditors and a further €1.4million to related companies in the group. At the end of January, the company had almost €6.7million in cash on its balance sheet and €7.8 million in shareholders’ funds.