Profits at Amazon’s Irish unit treble

Pre-tax profits at the main Irish arm of online retailing giant amazon.com jumped threefold to €3.8m last year as revenues more than doubled to €112.6m.

Accounts just filed with the Companies Registration Office show pre-tax profits at Amazon Data Services Ireland Ltd (ADSIL) rose by 250% from €1.26m to €3.8m in the 12 months to the end of December.

This follows the firm’s revenues increasing by 109%, or €69m, from €53.6m to €112.6m.

One of the largest online retailers in the world, amazon.com operates seven data hub facilities in Dublin supporting Amazon group websites. Together with another amazon.com Irish subsidiary, the Cork-based Amazon CS Ireland Ltd (ACSIL), the two companies employed 657 at the end of December.

Separate returns for ACSIL show its pre-tax losses increased last year by 15% to €435,170 in spite of revenues increasing by 47% from €18.7m to €27.6m.

In relation to the Dublin-based ADSIL, it shows it received a cash injection of €61m last year from connected company, Amazon EU Sari.

The figures for ADSIL show it recorded its pre-tax profits after taking into account non-cash depreciation costs on its own assets of €51.6m.

The company’s operating profit increased from €3.1m to €7.2m last year.

However, interest payments totalling €3.4m compared to €1.5m in 2010 reduced the firm’s pre-tax profits to €3.8m. It paid tax of €1.1m compared to €498,275 in 2010.

The cash injection resulted in the company having shareholder funds totalling €82.1m at the end of 2011, that included its cash increasing from €5.83m to €19.5m.

The firm’s accumulated profits last year increased from €3.4m to €6.1m.

The increase in numbers employed last year resulted in staff costs rising from €9.3m to €14.3m. The value of the firm’s tangible assets increased last year from €91.5m to €231.8m and this arose mainly from €117m in technology infrastructure being added to the company’s assets.

Figures for ACSIL show its staff costs increased from €10.7m to €17.2m after the average number employed during the year increased from to 475.

The firm’s cash increased last year from €3.8m to €16.5m.