Profits at Johnny Sexton management firm surge to €2.67m

Gordon Deegan

The management company owned by former Ireland rugby captain Johnny Sexton recorded post tax profits of €425,952 last year.

Sexton retired from playing during the year under review in October 2023, following the Rugby World Cup and new accounts filed by Sexton's JAS Management & Promotions Ltd show that it recorded bumper profits for the 12 months to the end of September last.

The €425,952 post-tax profit followed a post-tax loss of €83,240 in the prior year - a positive swing of €509,192.

The profit for last year resulted in the firm sitting on accumulated profits of €2.67m at the end of September last.

Cash funds at the company last year more than halved from €1.3 million to €554,744 while during the same period, the value of the company’s financial assets increased by €1.22 million from €881,826 to €2.11 million.

The accounts - signed off by directors, Johnny Sexton and wife, Laura Sexton on August 6th - show that aggregate pay to directors last year decreased sharply from €322,334 to €238,606 made up of emoluments of €63,759 and pension contributions of €174,856.

Sexton - who celebrated turning 40 last month- added to his company’s coffers in the current financial year with sales from his Obsessed: The Autobiography by Johnny Sexton which was the biggest selling non-fiction book of 2024 in Ireland.

The paperback release of the book - which won Eason Sports Book of the Year at An Post’s 2024 Irish Book Awards - in May of this year resulted in a fresh surge in sales.

Sexton will have also benefited from the Government’s innovative tax relief programme - introduced in 2002 - for professional sportspeople which allows them to receive a generous tax refund in the year they retire permanently from their sport.

After retiring from the game in October 2023 following Ireland’s World Cup loss to New Zealand, Sexton took up a senior role with glass bottle and tin-can maker, Ardagh.

However, earlier this year, Sexton was added to the British and Irish Lions coaching ticket ahead of taking up a full time coaching role with Ireland rugby team this month as well as working with men’s and women’s senior and age-grade teams.

The former Leinster out-half had been working with the Ireland men’s squad in a part-time coaching capacity since the 2024 Autumn Nations Series.

Sexton, a former World Rugby Player of the Year was appointed Ireland captain by Andy Farrell in January 2020.

Sexton is one of Irish Rugby’s most decorated players and led Ireland to a Grand Slam in 2023 and won four European Rugby Champions Cups with Leinster.

Sexton set up his firm in 2010 to handle earnings from commercial ventures such as sponsorships and image rights.