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Ramsay Holdings finally to file overdue accounts

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We were fascinated to read in last week’s ES magazine that turnover for Gordon Ramsay Holdings (GRH) is “forecast to be more than £70 million, a near 50 per cent increase on last year”. The forecast for 2009 is £112 million.*

The reason these confident prognostications are so interesting is that even getting GRH to put its historical figures on record has proved surprisingly difficult.

As any businessman knows, limited companies are obliged by law to file regular accounts, but GRH is currently over 11 months late on filing figures – due last June – for the year ended 30 June 2006.

We are told that the accounts will finally be filed on Friday, and that the delays “are due to a change in Group Auditor and the appointment of a new Finance Director”.

Such an explanation, however, raises as many questions as it answers. In particular, if the group hasn’t even until recently had the financial firepower to get its accounts in on time, how on earth can it confidently be managing international operations growing at a giddy rate of around 50% annually? If this were a public company, investors would be asking some very pointed questions.

Presumably, "2009", in this context, means the year ending 31 August 2009 (31 August being the company’s accounting date) but that’s not entirely clear.

On this basis, turnover/forecast figures would appear to be:

Year ended 31 August 2007 – about £47m

Year ending 31 August 2008 – £70m (forecast)

Year ending 31 August 2009 – £112m (forecast)

PS (2 July) – It has become apparent that the overdue accounts were not filed on 20 June, as we had directly been told by GRH’s representatives they would be. Indeed, they were not filed by the 30 June either, so they are now more than one year overdue.

PPS (2 July 2009) This story was updated by ensuring that the year end date was stated as 31 August in each relevant year, and with other minor technical corrections. The GRH filing accounts filing date is 31 August in any year, and the accounts should be filed by the following 30 June. It has subsequently become clear that "2009" must indeed have meant the year ending 31 August 2009.

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