Losses double at Prince's TV firm (original) (raw)

Prince Edward's hapless TV career will be in the spotlight again this week as his company prepares to announce substantial losses for the eighth year running. Ardent Productions will disclose that its annual operating losses almost doubled, from £122,000 in 1998 to £222,000 last year.

Ardent, set up by the Prince in 1993, has now posted cumulative losses of £1.9 million. The firm has paid no corporation tax since Edward launched it with the promise that it would become 'one of the top 12' British TV production houses by 2000.

The company's principal current project is a documentary about the sex lives of young British expatriates. X-Pats will include scenes of a financial trader who uses transvestite prostitutes, according to a source at Channel 5, which commissioned it. Ardent is also working on interview programmes featuring veteran singers.

Last year, the Prince provoked outrage by telling the New York Times that the British 'hate anyone who succeeds'. Americans responded to his programme proposals, he claimed, 'like a breath of fresh air'.

John Whiting, a partner at the leading accountants, PricewaterhouseCoopers, said yesterday: 'In normal circumstances, if a firm showed losses for six years, that would be an automatic trigger point for [the Inland Revenue] asking questions about why they are losing money. They will want to be satisfied that there is genuinely a loss.'

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, said: 'It is very curious when any company appears to make losses indefinitely.' He too would expect the Revenue to check on such a company.

Ardent pays £50,000 a year in rent to another firm controlled by Edward for offices at Bagshot Park, the Surrey seat of the Prince and his wife, the Countess of Wessex.

Local estate agents Chancellor & Sons said offices were available more cheaply nearby. 'A broad price guide would be £10 a square foot, with very reasonable property available for £15,' said the firm's Max Scott. Rent for an ample office for 12 staff could be between £7,500 and £11,250 a year, rather than the £50,000 which Ardent can currently offset against future tax liabilities.

There is, no doubt, an entirely innocent explanation, however Ardent chairman Malcolm Cockren was unavailable to comment.

It emerged earlier this year that almost £2 million of public money has been spent on refurbishing Bagshot Park since Edward moved in in 1997. The Ministry of Defence, its former owner, funded the repairs after the Prince signed a 50-year lease to rent the property from the Crown Estate. Buckingham Palace insisted the repairs would have been carried out at public expense regardless of who lived in the property, built by Queen Victoria for her third son, Arthur, Duke of Connaught.

The London-based building firm C J Sims, which did the refurbishment, went into receivership earlier this year. It said one of its outstanding payments was £600,000 owed by the Prince.

Ardent's new accounts, due to be filed at Companies House by Tuesday, will say its turnover was £326,210 last year, down from £424,773, and that its distribution company, Ardent International Sales, made a loss of £28,731.

Shareholders, who each provided up to £200,000 in funding when the company was founded, included the Sultan of Brunei and Sir Tom Farmer, the chairman of the Kwik-Fit car exhaust centres. Farmer insisted last summer that: 'The Prince has definitely got what it takes.'

Early Ardent commissions included an appreciation of real tennis, the Prince's hobby, and Annie's Bar, a political soap opera made for Channel 4 but axed after one series. Edward on Edward, a documentary about Prince Edward's great uncle Edward VII, was sold all over the world, as was the Crown and Country series. But both attracted criticism that the Prince was trading on his royal connections.

Sophie Rhys-Jones, who married Edward last June, has also been accused of trading on her royal links to help her public relations company, R-JH, which has represented Rover as well as a string of society clients.

Last year, Edward was embroiled in controversy after agreeing to sell footage of his wedding to TV companies. A drama about the Queen Mother was cancelled after the subject reportedly protested.

The Prince has shown some entrepreneurial initiative in the past two years. He earned a reported £200,000 fee for a seven-day speaking programme in the United States. He gave an after-dinner address at a £129-a-head dinner at a London hotel to launch a book accompanying his Crown and Country series. And he was said to have received £30,000 for a lecture on the 1992 fire and restoration at Windsor Castle.

The Earl and Countess of Wessex, currently on a trip to Brunei, receive £96,000 a year from the Queen's Civil List payments to cover the cost of official engagements. Last week, the couple and their staff were in Malaysia, where Edward was criticised for putting a trade fair exhibit on his head.

ben.summerskill@observer.co.uk

Useful links
http://www.royal.gov.uk/family/ edward.htm
The monarchy's official website