Forest reports profit of €860m

THE MAIN Irish holding company of US drug-maker Forest Laboratories increased its pretax profit to $859.93 million (€573.14 million) from $809.43 million, a rise that brought the profits accumulated by the business and its subsidiaries to $3.19 billion.

Forest Laboratories Holdings – whose registered office is in Clonshaugh, Dublin – reveals in new official filings that its turnover rose to $2.53 billion in the year to March 2009 from $2.06 billion in the previous period. Such figures point to a rapid expansion of the Irish holding company, whose turnover was $1.37 billion in the year to March 2006.

The accounts for this legal entity present only a partial picture of Forest’s overall performance in Ireland, as most of its revenues are derived from intercompany sales and the holding company itself has five indirect and direct subsidiaries in Ireland and the Netherlands.

According to its accounts, the holding company holds licences for the manufacture and distribution of pharmaceutical products in the US. “It in turn sublicenses these rights to other subsidiary companies,” the accounts state.

Forest ranks among numerous US-owned multinationals that avail of Irish corporation tax and intellectual property rules to minimise tax exposure in the US. Forest shares lost 4.8 per cent on Tuesday after the parent said its net profit fell to $186.7 million in the three months to September from $244.1 million a year earlier.