AER LINGUS PAID OUT €200m DIVIDEND FOR 2017 AS PROFIT HIT RECORD - Aer Lingus paid a €200m dividend to its UK-based holding firm last year as it generated record profits in 2017.
It's the first time a dividend has been paid out by the airline since it was acquired by IAG in 2015. IAG directly received a €125m dividend from Aer Lingus's UK-based holding company last year, newly-filed accounts for the entities show. The UK holding company said that it used the €200m dividend it received from Aer Lingus to service euro-denominated borrowings. That Aer Lingus holding company then paid the €125m dividend to IAG, reports the Irish Independent. Aer Lingus made a pre-tax profit of €270m in 2017 compared to €226m in 2016, on passenger revenue of just under €1.8 billion, newly-filed accounts in Ireland for the business confirm. IAG has invested heavily in Aer Lingus since it bought it for €1.36 billion. Aer Lingus recently announced plans to expand its transatlantic fleet from 17 to 30 aircraft within the next five years. Accounts for Aer Lingus also show that its directors, including outgoing CEO Stephen Kavanagh, inset, were paid a total of €4.3m last year, up from €3.4m in 2016. The beneficiaries of those payments are Mr Kavanagh, Aer Lingus chief financial officer Rachel Izzard, and chief operating officer Mike Rutter. IAG, whose chief executive is former Aer Lingus CEO Willie Walsh, also owns British Airways, Iberia, Vueling and Level. The accounts filed for Aer Lingus also show that €5.7m in compensation was paid to key management at the airline last year.
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LINKEDIN'S IRISH SUBSIDIARY PAYS $127m ON $2.67 BILLION PROFIT - The Irish arm of LinkedIn reported a 20% rise in revenues last year and returned to the black, helped by the the disposal of intellectual property assets to its parent Microsoft Ireland.
Accounts filed recently by LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company show it posted a pre-tax profit of just under $2.7 billion in 2017 compared with a loss of $779.4 million in the previous year. The subsidiary, which manages LinkedIn’s European headquarters in Ireland, paid $127 million in tax last year once adjustments have been factored in. Founded in 2003, and with an estimated 500 million members worldwide, LinkedIn was acquired by Microsoft in a $26.2 billion deal in 2016, says the Irish Times. The online network, which employs about 1,200 people here, reported revenues of $1.57 billion for 2017, as against $1.3 billion a year earlier, the latest accounts show. Some $939.9 million in revenues was derived from the Republic. Cost of sales jumped significantly over the 12 months, rising from $197.5 million to $496.2 million even as administrative expenses declined from $1.2 billion to $1.08 billion. The company reported a $85.6 million operating profit as against a $369.7 million loss a year earlier.
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NORWAY ENDS INVESTMENT BAN ON IRISH-LINKED EXPLORER - Norway's influential oil and gas-focused sovereign wealth fund has lifted its investment boycott on two exploration companies, opening a potentially significant new investment stream for Irish offshore drilling in the process.
One of the companies the fund is now free to invest in is Scottish explorer Cairn Energy which has significant assets in Irish waters. The world's largest sovereign wealth fund, operated by Norway's central bank, had excluded Kosmos Energy and Cairn Energy from its list of investment options in 2016 on ethical grounds, says the Irish Examiner. The fund's ethics watchdog found what it called "an unacceptable risk related to petroleum prospecting off the coast of Western Sahara". However, the boycott has been lifted since both companies said they had discontinued their business in the African region. It remains to be seen if Norway will invest in Cairn and if such a move would have an eventual knock-on benefit for offshore exploration in Ireland. However, Ronan MacNioclais, oil and gas partner at PwC Ireland, said it remains welcome news. "It’s positive in terms of showing the quality of players that Ireland is attracting if the Norwegian Wealth Fund is willing to invest [in one of those players]," he said.
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DANSKE SCANDAL SPURS CRACKDOWN ON MISUSE OF LIMITED PARTNERSHIPS - The British government is to tighten century-old rules around corporate structures blamed for facilitating "money-laundering on an industrial scale" and for playing a key role in the world's biggest dirty-money scandal.
Despite opposition from the City of London, including from private-equity firms, new legislation will force limited partnerships to maintain a link to the UK and be registered via an official supervised agent, according to a letter to the Treasury from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) seen by the Financial Times. "There has been growing concern in recent years that limited partnerships, and in particular their Scottish form (Scottish limited partnerships), are being used for illicit purposes," reads the letter, dated last week and written by Greg Clark, the business secretary. LPs, and particularly Scottish limited partnerships, are a standard feature in money-laundering scandals. The National Crime Agency has stated that SLPs are the vehicle of choice for moving ill-gotten gains around the world, says the Financial Times. A report in September by Danske Bank into its €200 billion scandal - in which questionable funds from Russia and other ex-Soviet states were funnelled through the bank's tiny Estonian branch - found that UK limited partnerships and limited-liability partnerships were the second-most common type of non-resident client at the branch, after Russians. It also found that they were tied to two previous schemes to launder money out of Russia and Azerbaijan.
