FedEx’s Irish unit delivers €50m dividend payment

Accounts for FedEx Express Ireland Ltd show revenues rose but profits declined last year

Shipping crates containing two of the Washington DC's three giant pandas are loaded onto a special FedEx flight at Dulles International Airport in late 2023. The Irish unit of the global logistics giant made a €50m dividend payment last year.
Shipping crates containing two of the Washington DC's three giant pandas are loaded onto a special FedEx flight at Dulles International Airport in late 2023. The Irish unit of the global logistics giant made a €50m dividend payment last year.

The Irish arm of US logistics company FedEx last year delivered a dividend of €50 million.

New accounts filed by FedEx Express Ireland Ltd show that pretax profits declined by 22 per cent to €3.2 million in the 12 months to the end of May last.

This followed revenues increasing marginally from €65.05 million to €65.38 million.

The directors state that revenues increased by 0.5 per cent “due to increased volumes during the year”.

The main activity of the company is as a carrier of goods of every nature and description. It also operates a global data centre in Dublin for the FedEx group.

Other operating income of €6.73 million was generated from the operation of the data centre, down on the €15.6 million generated by the data centre in 2024.

The company made the €50 million dividend payout after the share capital of the company was reduced by a capital reduction by cancelling 52 million ordinary shares of €1.25 each.

This resulted in a cumulative transfer of €72.7 million from the share capital and share premium accounts to the company’s accumulated profit reserves.

The company’s operating profits declined by 26 per cent to €2.11 million and interest income of €1.09 million resulted in the pretax profit of €3.2 million.

It recorded post tax profits of €2.68 million after incurring a corporation tax charge of €524,175.

The number employed by the firm last year reduced from 277 to 272 while s

taff costs reduced from €17.19 million to €16.31 million.

This included salary costs of €13.97 million and share based payments of €215,830.

Pay to directors last year increased from €211,870 to €372,764, the largest component being €264,364 in compensation for loss of office/other termination payments.

The remainder of directors’ pay comprised €37,297 in emoluments compared to €182,277 under that heading in 2024. Directors also received €13,956 under long term incentive schemes and €57,147 through the exercise of share options during the year.

Globally, in the year end of May last, FedEx recorded revenues of $87.9 billion (€74 billion) and employed 440,000 staff. It also had 695 owned aircraft in service and 78,000 vehicles.

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Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan is a contributor to The Irish Times