Profits double to €7.1m at Irish mobile software firm Openet Telecom

Operating profits more than doubled, to €7.1m, at Irish software firm Openet Telecom last year, new accounts show.

Revenues at the Dublin-based firm, which employs 680 people, increased by 1.3% to €96m.

Openet develops software for more than 600 million mobile phone users around the world.

The software enables its global mobile phone and cable customers, which include AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and Vodafone, to improve profitability by commercialising network activity.

The company has an R&D lab and core product development function in Dublin where it employs more than 200 engineers.

Openet is Ireland’s largest privately-owned technology firm.

Three years ago it postponed plans for an IPO on the Nasdaq exchange in New York after problems relating to the flotation of Facebook in May 2012.

On a pre-tax basis, Openet returned to profit last year; turning around a loss of €254,000 in 2013 to a profit of €1.6m.

The accounts show that the firm recorded €72.8m of last year’s revenues in the US, with the rest of the world accounting for the remaining €23.8m.

Two customers each accounted for more than 10% of revenues.

The firm’s cash pile increased during the year from €18.14m to €27.23m.

Staff costs last year increased from €56.49m to €61m.

The amount paid to key management personnel, made up of the board and the executive team, more than doubled from €1.55m to €3.2m.

Pay for directors, who include former Esat executive, Barry Maloney, alone increased by 127% to €1.97m.

According to the the directors’ report, operating profit excluding depreciation and charges relating to share based payments and exceptional legal and professional fees amounted to €7.1m compared to €3m in 2013.

R&D spend last year reduced by 8.5% from €18.82m to €16.79m.

The firm’s sales and marketing expenses increased to €20.2m while cost of sales reduced from €36.97m to €34.5m.

The directors state that gross margin improved by €3.74m and this “was achieved as a result of higher revenue and a reduction in cost of sales of €2.46m.”