€11m windfall for Facebook staff

Executives and staff at Facebook Ireland shared a €11.84m share windfall last year as revenues surged 70% to €1.789bn.

New figures show Dublin- based Facebook Ireland Ltd last year accounted for 47.7% of the social networking giant’s global revenues of $5.089bn (€3.75bn) in 2012.

New accounts lodged with the Companies Office show that in spite of revenues increasing from €1.051bn to €1.78bn, Facebook Ireland Ltd still did not manage to record a pre-tax profit.

Pre-tax losses declined sharply from €18.37m to €626,000.

A tax charge of €5.2m resulted in a post-tax loss of €5.838m and this followed a post-tax loss of €21.9m in 2011. The chief factor behind the losses was administrative expenses, made up mainly of royalty payments made by Facebook Ireland Ltd to Facebook entities, rising sharply from €1.03bn to €1.75bn last year.

The Dublin-based company bills third-party customers for online advertising on Facebook.

Last year staff and executive directors shared share-based payments totalling €11.9m and this followed payments of €13.9m under the same heading in 2011.

However, 33% or €3.9m of the share-based payments in 2012 went to unidentified key management personnel. In total, key management personnel received €5.5m in remuneration last year.

Directors’ remuneration for the year totalled €413,000. Numbers employed by the firm increased by 33% from 287 to 382 with staff costs amounting to €45.6m.

The directors state that the revenue increase “was attributable to the company billing third-party customers for online advertising on the website and for Facebook credits revenue”. They attribute the rise in administrative expenses to an increase in headcount between 2011 and 2012 and royalties payable to Facebook Ireland Holdings.

Facebook Ireland Ltd’s shareholder funds at the end of last year stood at €321.2m.