Irish PayPal subsidiary left with €265m after liquidation

An Irish subsidiary of PayPal has cashed in to the tune of over $302m (€265m) after going into voluntary liquidation.

The Dublin-based PayPal International Ltd acted as a holding company for a number of Paypal subsidiaries. Documents filed with the Companies Office, confirming that it has gone into voluntary liquidation, show that, in a declaration of solvency after all debts are paid in full, the firm will be left with a surplus of $302m.

The surplus is made up of investments of $232.58m and cash of $70.24m. Along with acting as a holding company, the firm — established here in 2013 — also held the excess group cash funds, provided loans to related parties and held investments in money market funds.

The firm’s most recent accounts, for the 12 months to the end of December 2013, show that it recorded pre-tax profits of €100.79m based on income from shares in group undertakings. The company had no employees and its voluntary liquidation follows PayPal’s massive expansion in Ireland in recent years.

The firm’s expansion here was beginning to pay dividends with pre-tax profits at its main Irish firm increasing 43% to €11.2m in 2013. The company has its European headquarters in Blanchardstown, Dublin, where it hosts PayPal’s European customer services and financial services functions for the European market.

Led by Louise Phelan, the main growth at Paypal’s Irish operations is centred at its Dundalk, Co Louth, facility, where it announced a further 400 jobs in June last year. This followed the online payment firm announcing 1,000 jobs at its Irish operations in 2012 and its 2013. Figures show that revenues at Paypal Europe Services Ltd increased by 28% from €102.27m to €130.58m.

The average number of employees at Paypal Europe Services Ltd in 2013 rose from 1,564 to 1,871 and staff costs at the firm rose 19% from €78.27m to €93.4m.

PayPal was purchased by eBay for $1.5bn in 2002, while Paypal Europe Services Ltd was incorporated in Ireland in 2006. PayPal operates an online internet marketplace where buyers and sellers buy and trade goods and services, the payments of which are managed and secured by PayPal.

EBay was founded in California in 1995.