AT LEAST 70 jobs will go at Mount Salus Press following the loss of a lucrative printing manual contract with Microsoft.

Announcing a 141 per cent rise in pretax profit from £3.4 million to £8.2 mild lion in the year ended April 30th, 1996, Adare Group, which purchased Mount Salus for £12 million last year, said that hopes to retain around 50 jobs at Mount Salus's Dublin plant.

Mount Salus is to be "restructured" and an "in depth review of the company's options is ongoing", said Adare.

Although last week's brief announcement on the loss of the contract gave no inkling on how it would affect the plant, Adare yesterday conceded it would have a very serious impact on Mount Salus".

The expected sales loss this year will be £4 million, and £5 million in a full year. Adare said this represented 3.5 per cent of group sales. However, it represents around 60 per cent of Mount Salus's business and the profit loss will be around £600,000. The latest accounts contain a provision of £500,000 for rationalisation.

Asked if Adare had paid too much for Mount Salus, Mr Nelson Loane, chief executive of Adare, said the company was aware of the declining market for printed manuals and the considerations reflected this. "We still think it will have shown good value for shareholders," he said.

Adare has acknowledged that Mount Salus had no contract with Microsoft. Nevertheless, it is asking Microsoft for more time and alternative business to soften the immediate impact. There is, however, no evidence that Microsoft, will change its decision.

The phasing out of the business is expected to be completed in September. The loss of the contract led, to an drop in the share price to 440p last week.

It fell a further 5p to 435p yesterday before recovering to close at 450p following yesterday's results which showed that the Mount Salus business is not now a material part of the group.

Adare purchased the British printing company, Prontaprint, for £23 million last month. Asked if there are any skeletons in Prontaprint, Mr Loane said, Prontaprint is "good value and we believe it will be a good deal for shareholders".

Adare's latest results are in line with expectations and have not been affected by the loss of the Microsoft contract.

Turnover rose by 59 per cent from £43.9 million to £70.1 million. Reflecting real growth, earnings per share grew by 70 per cent from 28.4p to 48.4p. Shareholders are to benefit from this upsurge. The final dividend is being raised from 1.03p to 2.896p, making a total of 5.0650p compared with 2.3420p.

Much of the profit growth came from acquisitions which contributed £3.9 million to the operating profit of £8.5 million. Nevertheless, excluding acquisitions, core profits managed to grow by 35 percent.

Adare said there was "substantial organic growth" amounting to just under 15 per cent in turnover terms. It stressed that it has never sought, growth for" growth's sake "but has focused on growing the margin, profits and cash flow in the companies acquired".

This policy led to subsidiaries reducing their emphasis on low margin business, and developing into higher value products.

Adare said the general market environment has improved substantially since the group started four years ago.

The within the had prosperity, particularly in the British market.

Annualised sales in its 16 operating subsidiaries are now running at more than £110 million.

The group has invested over £38 million in acquisitions over the past 12 months. Most of this was funded from internal sources and bank debt hut £6.5 million was put up by shareholders.

The planned capital expenditure for this year will be around £5 million. However, Adare is now adopting a more cautious approach to acquisitions due to the increased price expectations of potential sellers.

Brokers have shaved back their forecast for this year following the Mount Salus problems. However, most are looking for earnings per share of 52p to 53p which would represent marginal growth on the 48.37p generated last year.