Dip in pre-tax profits at Payzone

The Irish arm of electronics payment business Payzone sustained a dip in pre-tax profits last year in spite of increasing its revenues by 5% to €234.2m.

Accounts filed with the Companies Office show that Payzone Ireland Ltd recorded a 7.5% drop in pre-tax profits going from €6.2m to €5.8m in the 12 months to the end of Sept 30 last. During the same period, revenues increased by €11.4m from €222.8m to €234.2m.

Payzone has a nationwide network of 11,500 retail points of sale which process a variety of electronic transactions services, including mobile phone top ups, debit/ credit card transactions; M50 motorway toll payments, Luas travel cards, and pre-paid utility cards.

The firm has been to the forefront in developing the e-payments industry and processes over 50m transactions in Ireland annually in retail, online and mobile phone payments.

The profit last year takes account of combined non-cash depreciation and amortisation costs totalling €2.26m. The firm had a shareholders’ deficit of €19.1m last year.

Cost of sales last year rose from €215.9m to €226.8m with its administrative expenses increasing from €4.6m to €5.4m.

It also enjoyed an exceptional operating gain of €4m that related to bad debt write back in relation to intercompany debtors.

The firm recorded an operating profit of €6m and net interest payments totalling €283,000 reduced the firm’s profits.