The shareholders of Winthrop Technologies, a data centre engineering company, were paid an interim dividend of nearly €85 million last August, on the day before the company completed a deal to sell a majority stake to Blackstone, an American private equity group.
Shareholders included Winthrop’s founder, Barry English; chief executive, Anne Dooley; and Bernard Keane, the managing director. The payment was made on August 6, while Blackstone’s acquisition of 50.7 per cent of the company was completed on August 7, valuing the company at €800 million.
Dooley said 2024 was a “landmark year” for Winthrop. Pre-tax profits surged by 36 per cent to €140.5 million in the 12 months to December 31, accounts just filed show.
Revenues also hit a record high, growing to €1.58 billion in 2024, up from €1.17 billion the previous year. The company said the jump was “as a result of the increased volume and magnitude of projects in the turnkey data centre sector”. At the end of 2024, the company changed its financial year-end from April 30 to December 31. However, its accounts show 12-month comparisons for 2023 and 2024.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased to €139.3 million in 2024, a rise of 35 per cent year on year.
The company, which has branches in Ireland, Poland, Norway and Spain, said the growth reflected continued expansion in the European data centre sector and the increasing scale of its operations. It operates in ten European markets and started working in Finland in 2024. It expects to add more jurisdictions in the coming year.
Set up by English as a civil engineering company in 1995, Winthrop has focused on turnkey data centres since 2015. It has built them for some of the world’s biggest technology companies, including Google and Microsoft.
The company is a significant employer, with 692 employees. In the eight months to the end of last year, it had a wage bill of more than €66 million.
The accounts say the introduction of Blackstone as a partner “officially commenced an exciting new phase of growth”. There has been no change in management at the company, and the legacy shareholders retain 40.3 per cent of company.
Dooley said the company was “very optimistic” about the future. “Our performance this year reflects both the strength of the data centre market and our ability to meet its evolving demands. As we scale further, we’re focused on deepening client partnerships and staying ahead of the curve in a fast-changing digital landscape,” she said.
Irish companies have played a central role in the delivery of data centres around the world.
In an interview with journalists at the launch of Enterprise Ireland’s 2024 annual report last week — ahead of taking up the role of chief executive next week — Jenny Melia said Irish data centre builders were the “partners of choice” for tech companies, and as a result were increasing their presence in the Nordics and “doing a lot of work in Spain”, where there is a significant investment in large data centres.
Kevin Sherry, interim chief executive of Enterprise Ireland, said the 24 per cent growth in Irish exports to the Nordics last year was partly driven by data centre builders. “That’s a reflection of Irish companies, in high-tech construction and in engineering, targeting and winning a lot of business in data centres,” he said.
