Forest Laboratories pre-tax profits tumble 47.5%
Documents just filed with the Companies Registration Office show that pre-tax profits at Forest Laboratories Holdings decreased by $567m from $1.1bn after revenues dipped by $471m or 15% from $3.2bn to $2.7bn in the 12 months to the end of March.
The Dublin-based firm is the license holder to manufacture and distribute Forest Laboratories’ bestselling products in the US. Last year, the subsidiary paid a dividend of $10m to its US parent.
The $2.7bn in revenues generated by the Dublin unit accounted for 59% of the firm’s global revenues of $4.6bn in fiscal 2012.
Globally, the company employs 5,600. Numbers employed by the Dublin- based subsidiary declined from 329 to 322.
The drop in profits is attributable to operating expenses increasing from $2bn to $2.1bn with “other operating income” falling from $101m to $72m. The company had $2.56bn in cash at the end of March.
The firm paid $29.5m in corporation tax to the exchequer. The filings show the company would have paid $78m in tax on the standard 12.5% corporate rate, but was reduced by $45.9m due to income not subject to Irish tax. The firm’s tax bill was also reduced by other reliefs.
According to its annual report “the company’s effective tax rate for fiscal years 2012, 2011, and 2010 is lower than the federal statutory rate principally as a result of the proportion of earnings generated in lower taxed foreign jurisdictions as compared with the US”.
