€50 million McCauley deal not going ahead
A €50 MILLION takeover deal involving Sam McCauley Chemists is not going ahead after a dispute forced the parties into arbitration a number of weeks ago, it has been reported.
However, the independent pharmacy chain remains in fine fettle, as its operating profits grew 45 per cent to €7.5 million last year, the company's latest figures show.
The Wexford-based group, which owns a chain of chemist shops around the southeast, south and south west of the country, had sales of €84.76 million in its last financial year, which ended on September 30 last year.
While revenues were less than one per cent short of those earned in its 2008 financial year, operating profits increased by 45 per cent to €7.5 million from €5.2 million, largely due to a €2 million-plus fall in costs.
The group employed 40 fewer people in 2009, down to 564 from 605, and saved more than €600,000 in wages and social insurance costs.
Net assets were €26.7 million on its balancesheet date, September 30, 2009, down from €32.5 million 12 months earlier. The change was largely due to a substantial write down in the value of its properties.
The directors did not recommend paying shareholders a dividend at the end of last year. The previous year the company paid its owners - largely comprising the McCauley family - just over €1.5 million.
It has also emerged that three years ago, Sam McCauley Chemists approached a smaller pharmacy group, owned by Adrian Dunne, to discuss a takeover valued at €50 million.
Following due diligence, the initiative did not go ahead and the matter eventually wound up in formal arbitration at the end of June.
It has been reported that those proceedings have since ended and that the McCauley group's takeover of the Dunne business is not going to go ahead. Neither party has commented on the outcome.
