MBNA IRELAND, the Carrick-on-Shannon credit card firm that Bank of America is trying to sell, made a pretax profit of €2.9 million last year. The bank wants to leave the Irish and UK credit card business as part of an effort to boost capital ratios by getting rid of non-core activities.
It is “actively looking” for a buyer and has found buyers for other businesses recently, a spokeswoman said.
Last week Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation Richard Bruton said there had been “positive expressions of interest” from potential buyers of the MBNA credit card operation. He was speaking after meetings with top executives at the Charlotte, North Carolina, headquarters of Bank of America.
The latest accounts for MBNA Ireland Ltd were filed recently and showed that profits in 2010 were down on the previous year’s, when the company made a pretax profit of €3.4 million.
Accumulated profits at the end of 2010 were €41.66 million and shareholders’ funds were €52.27 million. The call centre operator reduced its operating expenses in 2010 to €33.3 million, from €35.6 million, due to a combination of reduced staff costs and other efficiency savings, according to the accounts.
Turnover fell to €34.7 million, from €37.5 million the previous year. Turnover arises from fees billed to other companies within the group. The average number of people employed by the company fell to 630 in 2010, from 667 the previous year, with staff costs coming in at €24.4 million in 2010, compared with €25.7 million the previous year.
There are a number of employees in Carrick who are employed by a fellow MBNA company, bringing the total number employed at the site to 740.
The accounts, which were signed in March 2011, state that the directors are aware of a possible restructuring that would see the company’s business being sold to its parent, though no decision had been made.
The company’s four directors shared payments and benefits of €179,468, up from €154,985 the previous year.
The directors during the year were Bryan Kelly, Will Curley, Ian O’Doherty and Mary Meenaghan.
Bank of America announced on August 15th that it would cease running the Co Leitrim operation.
During his visit to the US last week Mr Bruton said the process of finding an alternative owner was at an early stage.
“The important thing for us, what we were building in the meetings, is to have the IDA very much a part of the process so that when prospective buyers emerge, the IDA has every opportunity to present the case for Ireland.
“There’s very clear support from the company for that. The company realises the importance of the MBNA operation to Carrick and to the Irish Government.”
