Donald Trump’s two Scottish golf courses continued to suffer losses last year, accounts filed in Britain show, highlighting the challenge the U.S. presidential candidate has in making a return on his substantial investments there.

 

Trump International Golf Club Scotland Limited, which owns and manages a course the tycoon built on previously protected dunes north of Aberdeen, reduced its annual loss by 40,000 pounds to 1.1 million pounds ($1.37 million), according to accounts filed in recent days.

 

Turnover at the course, which opened in 2012, rose 7 percent to 3.0 million pounds.

 

The Turnberry golf resort, which Trump bought in 2014 for 34 million pounds, reported a loss of 8.4 million pounds, compared to over 3.6 million in 2014. Turnover fell to 11 million pounds from 13 million in 2014.

 

Heavy investments in the property and the closure of its hotel for renovations drove the drop in revenue and increased losses.

 

Trump’s organization has said the New York property magnate has invested around $300 million in buying, building and developing the properties.

 

The accounts show his main Scottish operating companies spent less than half that figure up to the end of 2015 but Trump officials say spending since then and head office costs related to the Scottish developments pushed the total higher.

 

But some industry investors and consultants are skeptical he can make a return on his investment.

 

A decline in golf's popularity and an oversupply of courses has pushed some Scottish courses to close, while Turnberry’s two previous owners failed to make a profit there.

 

A Reuters examination of Trump’s golf empire earlier this year, based on his own comments and official filings, calculated that he had spent over $1.1 billion building a portfolio that was now worth about half that sum.

 

Trump rejected the analysis, saying of his courses: “Every one of them makes a lot of money”.