Profits surge 43% at Irish arm of ‘Lancet’ publisher

Pre-tax profits at the Irish arm of publishing giant Elsevier — which is winding down here — increased by 43% last year to €26.3m.

In 2010, the Dutch-owned company announced the closure of its Irish base at Shannon with the loss, on a phased basis, of about 100 jobs.

Elsevier is a publisher of bio-medical, scientific, and clinical journals. It counts The Lancet among its titles and employs 7,000 worldwide.

Accounts just filed with the Companies Office show that revenues at Elsevier Ireland Ltd at the firm increased from €37.8m to €40.7m in the 12 months to the end of December.

The figures show that the company paid €18m to its parent last year in dividends. This followed a dividend payout of €23m in 2010.

The filings confirm that a contributory factor behind the increase in pre-tax profits was the fall in restructuring costs last year, decreasing from €3.72m to €500,000.

The company’s operating profits last year increased last year by 22% from €21.9m to €26.7m.

The phased winddown of Elsevier’s Shannon operation began in Apr 2011 and was due to continue for three years, by which time there would be only 10 people deployed at a different location.

According to the directors’ report, they were “satisfied with the performance of the company’s journal portfolio, which is expected to continue in the foreseeable future”.

The company’s profits last year, combined with the dividend payout, resulted in the company having €23m in accumulated profits last year.

The company’s cash increased from €38.6m to €41.3m at the end of last year and net interest from the company’s bank deposits amounted to €98,000 last year.

The company’s cost of sales last year declined from €5.3m to €5.1m with its operating expenses declining from €10.5m to €8.8m.

The figures show that the average number of employees at the firm last year declined from 112 to 108, with staff costs increasing from €5.4m to €4.7m.

The figures show that the staff are made up of administrative and production staff.

Figures provided by the export-led firm show that 61% or €24m of the company’s revenues come from “rest of the world”, with 32% of business done with “other European countries”, while 7% or €2.5m of sales were done in the UK.

The figures show that the company recorded a loss of €1.6m on hedge contracts, which followed a loss of €3.2m the previous year.