More Firstport Property group accounts have been published, and with the exeption of Firstport Property Services (formerly known as OM Property Management0 they all show a decline in profits.
Firstport Insurance,(formerly known as Kingsborough insurance) profits have declined from £1,459,414 to £1,246,273.
Firstport HMF (House Manager's Flats) a decline from a profit of £1,223,771 in 2015 to £398,074 in 2016 . The profit figure would have been much worse but for an upward revaluation of their properties, that increased the asset value by £208,384 and thereby increased the stated profit by this amount. And this upward valuation comes at a time when it is well known that retirement development flats (particularly the older McCarthy & Stone developments managed by Firstport) have suffered significant falls in values.
Firstport Scotland recorded broadly similar profits, showing a small decline from £309,851 to £306,458. Staff numbers decreased from 90 to 85.
Firstport Ltd (who handle Firstport Group administration) has had a mixed year.
Losses were reduced from £-3,869,032 down to losses of £-1,4181,191 in 2016.
Staff levels reduced from 560 to 542.
Of particular concern wsas that Firstport Ltd's net worth worsened from a negative value of £-6,950,182 to a negative value of £-8,368,373.
Crucially, Knight Square had to pledge to fund Firstport Ltd in order to allow Firstport Ltd to continue to trade.
The exception to the downturn in profits was Firstport Property Services, which raises some questions as to how they increased their profits?
Profits were up from £3,642,733 to £4,764,629.
And yet, profits increased despite the number of developments under their management decreasing from 1,834 in 2015 to 1,739 in 2016.
That funds held in service charge reserve funds have also increased from £83,786,227 up to £85,858,089, at the same time that profits have increased from fewer developments must raise doubts as to how this is happening?
Staffing levels fell from 483 to 465
