Trump’s Aberdeen Golf Course Posts Loss for Seventh Year in Row

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s golf links north of Aberdeen in Scotland again lost money in 2018.

The Trump International club, which he touted earlier this year as “perhaps the greatest,” reported a loss of 1.1 million pounds ($1.3 million) last year, according to a filing with the Companies House registry in the U.K., first reported by The Scotsman newspaper.

It was the seventh year consecutive of losses at the operation, Trump’s first U.K. golf resort, according to the Scotsman. The loss narrowed from the previous year.

According to the filing, Trump has provided interest-free loans worth 40.6 million pounds to the club.

The Aberdeenshire Council in September approved a capital investment including a 550-unit residential village at Trump International over the objections of thousands of local residents. A second 18-hole layout is also in the works.

In February, the Trump Organization was ordered to pay the Scottish government’s legal costs following a lengthy court battle over an offshore wind farm near the course, the BBC reported.

Golf course rankings are subjective and there’s no absolute standard. The website “Top 100 Golf Courses” rates Trump’s north-coast layout near Aberdeen as Scotland’s 10th best. Trump Turnberry, which the Trump Organization acquired in 2014 and which has hosted four Open Championships, ranked fourth.

To contact the reporter on this story: Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann, Ros Krasny

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