A dividend from technology giant Oracle’s Irish operation was used to make a payment of about $1.1 billion (€1 billion) to the US-headquartered group in January, accounts filed in Dublin suggest.
Accounts for Oracle EMEA, the company's Dublin-registered European hub, show that a dividend of almost €1.4 billion was paid on January 12th to Oracle EMEA Holdings, which is also Irish-registered. Further accounts for the holding entity show that, on the same day, the $1.1 billion was then sent abroad to the group in the form of an intra-company "loan repayment".
Oracle’s Dublin operation recorded sales last year of €8.3 billion, up almost 8 per cent. Its profit before tax rose by 38 per cent to almost €240 million. The tax charge it paid in Ireland almost doubled to €62.5 million. The Dublin unit also invested €40 million in research and development, according to the financial statements.
The accounts for Oracle also suggest that it agreed a major property deal in recent weeks. A note to the accounts says it entered a contract in March to buy €16.5 million worth of property. It does not specify if the property to be acquired is in Ireland. The Dublin unit is based at East Point office park in Fairview, just north of Dublin city centre.
The Irish unit employed an average of just over 1,150 staff last year, which was down 200 on the prior year. Last year Oracle announced a major cost-cutting and redundancy drive, and it was confirmed at the time that the Irish unit would be affected.
Oracle, which was co-founded by its executive chairman, Larry Ellison, has expanded its cloud business in recent years, moving from its core business as from a database supplier into a large cloud-focused technology group. Its Irish unit is mainly engaged in sales and marketing, while the Irish-registered holding unit also owns its business units in many other countries in the region.
