The Conduit directory inquiries group made a pretax profit of €3.5 million in the year to end of March 2006, the year it was sold for €90 million, writes Colm Keena, Public Affairs Correspondent

Recently filed accounts include income from exceptional items totalling €2.13 million. When that figure is removed, pretax profits for the year were €1.37 million. At the end of March 2006, the group had accumulated losses of €30.2 million.

A spokesman said the company had no comment to make on the size of the price paid for Conduit relative to its profits. "The business is performing well and continues to grow," he said.

In February of last year it was announced that the Conduit group was being purchased by venture capital group Investcorp and US directory assistance provider InfoNXX. The sale was completed in April.

The Conduit group increased its turnover during the 2006 financial year by 6 per cent, to €60.6 million, according to the accounts. Of this, €21.3 million came from its Irish activities and €31.94 million from its British activities. The rest of Europe contributed €7.4 million.

The exceptional items arose from events in Spain. In July 2005 the group sold its Spanish directory inquiry business and booked a profit of €1.63 million.

During the 2006 financial year it also booked €500,908 in damages received from the Spanish national telecommunications company Telefónica in a competition case taken by Conduit.

The directors' report included in the accounts says the mix of the group's business changed during the 2006 year "more towards contracted customer care from directory assistance. The group's key performance indicators, being revenue per call, wages cost per call and gross profit margin, improved or remained broadly in line with the prior year."

Profitability improved due to increased revenue and lower costs during the year, the statement said.

Conduit had its headquarters in Dublin and call centres in Ireland, Austria, Switzerland and Britain. At the time of the sale it employed 1,400 people, 500 of them in Ireland.

The former Conduit chief executive, Liam Young, received €17.1 million from the sale for his 19 per cent stake, while the former chairman, Eddie Kerr, received €12.6 million for his 14 per cent.

Both men were founders of Conduit, which runs the 11850 inquiries service here and carries out work for Vodafone and Aer Lingus.