SOUTH Derry building firm FP McCann has absorbed in a single trading year the bulk of a £25.5 million fine imposed for its role in an alleged price-fixing cartel and which led to boardroom bans being imposed on two of its key directors.
Newly-published accounts show that the firm, established in 1945 and based at Knockloughrim, near Magherafelt, made a pre-tax profit of £20.3 million last year on slightly reduced sales of £259.3 million.
But the 2020 accounts list an exception item of £25,449,676.
This refers to the penalty imposed by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority after a seven-year investigation cited McCann and two other firms for infringing UK and EU competition law in relation to the supply of certain pre-cast concrete drainage products.
That in turn led to the firm posting a bottom-line loss of almost £4.5m last year against a profit of £15.2m in 2019.
However, the family-owned company's total equity is still sitting at more than £67.3m, its financial records show.
The directors said: "A penalty was imposed on the company by the CMA, the final amount of which was determined at the end of 2020 and accrued for in the accounts as an exceptional item. The company settled this liability in full on February 10 2021."
It draws a line under a protracted investigation which led to the company being forced to pay one of the biggest fines ever imposed in Northern Ireland corporate history.
It also ultimately saw two of its senior executives, Eoin McCann (64) and Francis McCann (51), being handed bans of 12 years and 11 years respectively, both due to begin on March 31 (although according to Companies House record, both resigned their directorships on December 31).
It was an otherwise excellent trading year for FP McCann, the UK's largest manufacturer and supplier of pre-cast concrete products.
"Despite the uncertainties of 2020, we are pleased with the performance of the company," the directors said.
"We have continually invested in our facilities and people, and we are confident this strategy will ensure the company will be able to capitalise on the growing demand from the construction industry to provide modular solutions to meet its needs in an environment of a declining skilled labour market."
The company, which is involved in a diverse range of civil engineering projects across the UK and Ireland, generated cash from its operations of more than £42m last year compared to £27m a year earlier.
FP McCann, which claimed more than £5 million under the Coronavirus Job Retention grant scheme, had 1,630 employees on its books at year-end, which was 86 fewer than in 2019, although its wages bill shrunk by just £735,000 to £65m.
Its directors were paid a total of £1,105,194 (up from £1,011,197), with the highest-paid of them - thought to be outgoing managing director Eoin McCann - having a total remuneration and pensions package of £235,068.
The company, which didn't pay a dividend last year (2019: £16.7m), paid close to £3.9m in corporation tax, according to the accounts.
