Oracle’s Irish unit pays out €2bn dividend despite €450m loss

Enterprise software and hardware giant Oracle’s main Irish subsidiary recorded a €450 million loss last year after booking a €318.5 million impairment charge, and as turnover fell.

However, despite the sharp rise in losses the company paid a €2 billion dividend to its immediate parent group, which is also based in Dublin.

Oracle EMEA Ltd, which employs more than 1,400 people in Ireland, reported revenues of €8.5 billion for the 12 months ending May 31st, 2017, as against €8.76 billion a year earlier.

Pretax losses jumped to €449.8 million from €10.4 million in 2016, having made a profit of €109.2 million in 2015.

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The company attributed the increase in losses last year to a €243.5 million revenue decline and a €318.5 million impairment charge on undisclosed assets.

There was a shareholders’ deficit of €265 million at the end of the year, compared with a €2.2 billion surplus a year earlier.

Oracle said it invested €39.3 million in research and development activities last year, up from €35.9 million in 2016.

The group’s Irish unit, the head office of which is in Dublin’s East Point Business Park, employed 1,456 people during the year, with staff costs totalling €124 million, as against €132.5 million in 2016.

Oracle is the world’s largest provider of enterprise software and one of the biggest for computer hardware products and services. In recent years it has expanded its business in a move that has led it to move away from databases to become a leading cloud computing firm.

Oracle Corporation, which was founded by Larry Ellison, Ed Oates and Bob Milner in 1977, has a market cap of more than $190 billion and annual revenue that tops $37 billion.