By stuart MacDonald
DONALD TRUMP’S Scottish golf courses lost more than £9 million last year.
Accounts for the businessman’s resorts at the Menie Estate, Aberdeenshire, and Turnberry, Ayrshire, show they both made losses.
The US presidential candidate opened the Trump International Golf Links in north-east Scotland in 2012 following a battle with environmental campaigners opposed to the construction of a course on protected sand dunes.
Mr Trump, whose representatives had initially said they would spend up to £1 billion on the development, hailed the course as the greatest in the world and pledged to create 800 jobs at the resort.
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However, company accounts just published for 2015 show it lost money for the fourth year in a row since Mr Trump struck the first ball at the course.
It made a loss of £1,096,108 last year compared to losses of £1,139,513 in 2014, £1.8m in 2013 and £1.7m in 2012.
The resort, valued at £31.5m, had an operating loss of £815,413 but increased turnover to £3m during the year – up £200,000 from the previous 12 months.
The business employed 95 people during its fourth year of operations who were paid a total of £1.9m.
The accounts show Turnberry, which Mr Trump’s firm bought for £39.5m in June 2014, had a turnover of £11.4m but made a loss of £8.4m for 2015. The company said the loss was down to significant investments being made in the resort by the Trump Organisation.
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Mr Trump, 70, who is under fire in the US for his comments about women, employed 337 people at Turnberry during the year, who were paid a total of £6m in wages.
Due to the losses Mr Trump’s companies did not pay any corporation tax in the UK. Despite the losses, the Republican Party nominee’s representatives remain positive about the future of his investments in Scotland.
In his director report for the Menie Estate, the businessman’s son Eric said: “Overall revenues in 2015 have increased 7.4 per cent compared to 2014, in spite of the economic downturn experienced in the North East of Scotland due to the collapse of the oil prices, with over 100,000 redundancies in the oil and gas industry affecting every sector in the region.”
In his report for Turnberry, Mr Trump said: “Turnover for the resort has reduced by 13 per cent from 2014 to 2015, as a result of the closure of the hotel and Ailsa course during the final quarter of 2015.
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“Upon completion of the construction project, it is expected revenue will increase as the property is re-established as an industry leading resort.
“The directors believe the resort will return to profitability in the short to medium term.”
Last month, a financial watchdog in America called for the accounts of Trump’s two Scots golf resorts to be investigated amid allegations of “significant, widespread discrepancies”.
They claimed Mr Trump had broken the Ethics In Government Act because of inconsistencies in the incomes reported at Turnberry and the Menie Estate.
The American Democracy Legal Fund have contacted the Department of Justice calling for an inquiry.
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