Singer Hansard’s firm records profits of €1.2m

THE entertainment firm owned by Oscar winner and former busker Glen Hansard was sitting on accumulated profits of €1.2m (£1m) at the end of last November.

Accounts filed by Hansard’s Plateau Records Ltd show the artist — who left school at the age of 13 to go busking on Dublin’s Grafton Street — had a lucrative year as he shared pay of over €300,000.

The accounts show that the firm’s cash pile last year declined from €863,525 to €779,072.

The firm’s accumulated profits last year also declined from €1.26m to €1.2m after recording a loss of €61,060 for the year.

This followed the firm recording a loss of €273,021 in 2017.

Hansard is currently adding to his coffers this year with a string of gigs in the US, including Texas dates in Austin and Dallas this weekend, to be followed by a European tour.

The Dubliner first shot to prominence with The Frames over 25 years ago and the accounts show that the firm’s directors’ remuneration last year reduced from €340,851 to €307,700.

Hansard serves on the board with Claire Leadbitter.

The firm’s wealth comprises of tangible assets with a book value of €343,146 and financial assets of €100,000 along with current assets made up of the cash and money owed by debtors of €55,446.

Hansard busked on Grafton Street for five years as a teenager and in an interview the singer once remarked his time busking “was the only education I’ve ever needed”.

Hansard achieved worldwide fame in 2008 when he and then girlfriend Marketa Irgliva won an Oscar for the hit Falling Slowly from the film Once.