Irish travel tech company CarTrawler paid a dividend of just under €9.1 million to its parent company last year at a time when its revenue increased marginally but its profit declined by 40 per cent.
Latest accounts for Etrawler Unlimited Company for the year to the end of September 2024 show the dividend was paid to its immediate parent, ET Holdco, which is based in the Isle of Man.
This dividend was down from a figure of €46.7 million a year earlier.
Revenue rose by 1.3 per cent to €172.3 million but its profit after tax declined to €6.6 million from just over €11 million a year earlier.
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Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) rose by 2.3 per cent to €23.3 million.
The company incurred exceptional costs of €4.7 million during the year, including €3.1 million relating to severance payments following a “reorganisation of a number of functions in 2024″. In spite of this, headcount rose to 401 employees from 398 a year earlier.
The company said car-booking volumes rose by 14 per cent last year, indicating a “resumption of normalised car rental pricing” following a Covid-induced spike in rates in the previous couple of years.
CarTrawler has been majority owned by UK private-equity group TowerBrook Capital since May 2020 after it invested €100 million in the Irish business as it struggled to trade amid Covid lockdown restrictions on the travel trade globally.
The Irish company makes software that is used by airlines and travel agents to connect to car-hire companies, providing the carriers with ancillary revenue opportunities.
The company has a network of more than 2,200 car rental and “mobility” suppliers in 150 countries while its airline and other partners include EasyJet, Air France KLM, Uber, American Express and United Airlines.
It also sells insurance products (which accounted for €9.3 million of revenue last year).
Commenting on its performance, CarTrawler chief executive Peter O’Donovan said: “We delivered strong results, with further ebitda growth, and a 14 per cent increase in car-booking volumes.”
Mr O’Donovan said the company was on track to deliver record levels of business for the current financial year, which has just over six weeks to run.
Ebitda was up more than 20 per cent in the nine months to the end of June 2025, he said, “reflecting an acceleration in business momentum, a stable car rental pricing environment and a healthy new partnership pipeline”.
Further growth has been secured for 2026 and beyond through a “number of significant additional new partnerships”, Mr O’Donovan added.
CarTrawler last month completed the acquisition of Koala, a Paris-based tech business specialising in travel insurance, for an undisclosed sum.
“The acquisition of Koala is a further step toward fulfilling our ambition of becoming the leading multi-product ancillary platform for the global travel industry,” Mr O’Donovan said. “Together, we’ll unlock more value for travel partners and travellers alike.”
CarTrawler’s latest accounts show it had payroll costs last year of €39.5 million, down marginally on a year earlier. The company said it invested €8 million in research and development during the 12-month period.
