The former owners of DID Electrical, the Houlihan family, paid themselves a €11m dividend in specie before the sale of the business to tech retail group Select in 2023.
That is according to new accounts for DID Electrical Appliances Ltd which show that the €11m dividend in specie payout was made up of freehold premises assets and post acquisition, the company paid out a cash dividend of €1.5m to its new owners.
Revenues at DID Electrical Appliances Ltd in the 18 months to the end of September last totalled €142.17m as it recorded pre-tax profits of €519,672
Profits were hit by an exceptional cost of €3.34m that included “other costs related to sale completion” of €677,680, fixed assets transferred and written down of €2.15m and other write down provisions of €677,680.
The Select group – which formerly operated the Compu b brand before rebranding to Select – completed the purchase of DID Electrical in December adding 23 stores to the group and prior to the DID Electrical purchase, the Select Group was a premium Apple re-seller across 34 locations in Ireland and the UK.
Select Tech is owned by its management team of four directors, led by managing director Ciaran McCormack and financial director Alan Victor.
Separate group accounts lodged by Select Technology Sales and Distribution Group Ltd show that the purchase of DID Electrical Appliances (Holdings) Limited and DID Electrical Appliances Limited was discharged by cash consideration including costs of €3.17m.
From the date of acquisition on December 12, 2023 to the end of September last, the DID Electrical business contributed €74.2m towards group revenues and a loss of €406,000.
The accounts for Select Technology Sales and Distribution Group Ltd show that the purchase of DID Electrical contributed to revenues at the combined group increasing by €106.3m or 61% from €173.1m to €279.43m in the 12 months to the end of September last.
As a result of the surging revenues, pre-tax profits more than doubled rising from €1.16m to €2.52m
In their review of the year, the directors state “tight market conditions remain, particularly in the UK retail and business markets, while sales in the Irish retail and business market sectors performed very well, although product release cycles remain challenging”.
They state that “the education market remains tight, and depends largely on school grants”.
They “are confident that the business will continue to grow and deliver on profitability enhancement,” they add.
The group paid dividends of €200,000 during the year.
A breakdown of revenues shows that Irish revenues last year almost tripled from €53.56m to €160.58m while UK revenues dipped marginally from €119.55m to €118.84m.
As a result of the DID acquisition, numbers employed increased by 299 from 332 to 631 as staff costs almost tripled from €10.18m to €27.07m.
Directors shared €1.3m in remuneration made up of €1.12m in pay and €240,328 in pension contributions.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
