176-200

Mayo brothers Cathal (65) and Michael (62) along with partner Owen Kirk (66) caught the public eye when they turned a profit of close to €60m on the purchase and subsequent sale in 2015 of the site of Berlin’s historic Checkpoint Charlie.

Two years later, the owners of building company Cannon Kirk, which built about 3,000 homes during the Celtic Tiger, exited Nama following a €100m investment by US private equity giant Oaktree in return for an equity stake. That made them reportedly one of the few Nama debtors to repay their debts in full but also meant that they posted an exceptional loss of over €24m. But in the latest set of accounts, for the year to the end of January 2018, that loss had swung to a profit before tax of €1.4m. Nevertheless, the company did not pay out a dividend during that year to the trio, who own 33pc each of the company. Turnover jumped from just under €40m to over €97m and shareholders funds rose from €116m to close to €122m.