Healthcare firm’s pre-tax profits jump to €240m

Pre-tax profits at a Shannon-based healthcare firm, GE Healthcare Funding Ireland, increased by 57% last year to €240m, new figures show.

Accounts filed by GE Healthcare Funding Ireland show the company recorded the pre-tax profits after revenues increased by 56%, from €156m to €244m.

During the year, the firm paid a dividend of €215m to its immediate parent, GE Healthcare Holding Ireland.

The figures show that the firm’s pre-tax profits increased by 57%, from €154m to €240m, in the 12 months to the end of December.

According to the directors’ report, they “expect that the present level of activity will be sustained for the foreseeable future”.

The company’s main activity is a lending company and it was only established in Ireland at the end of 2009.

However, GE Healthcare’s presence in Shannon is providing a boon to the Irish exchequer, with the accounts showing that the company paid Irish corporation tax of €38.8m in 2011 and 2010, with €24.3m paid last year.

The company’s revenues last year were gener-ated from interest re-ceiveable from GE group businesses.

The firm has its registered office at Wil House, Shannon Business Park, and is one of a large cluster of GE companies based in Shannon.

The accounts state that the firm has no employees other than the directors, who did not receive any remuneration.

The firm’s shareholder funds last year stood at €3.3bn.

According to the directors’ report, the principal risks facing the company include changes in the economic outlook in Europe and, particularly, in Sweden and the US.

Globally, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people worldwide and is headquartered in Buckinghamshire in Britain.

GE Healthcare is the first GE business segment to be headquartered outside the US.

In 2004, just before the completion of the $9bn acquisition of the Britain-based Amersham plc, the formerly named GE Medical Systems was renamed GE Healthcare.