THE SHANNON-based Irish arm of publishing giant Elsevier last year returned pretax profits of €24 million. Elsevier is a publisher of biomedical, scientific and clinical journals and counts the Lancet among its titles. It employs 7,000 people worldwide.

According to accounts just returned to the Companies Office, it increased its pretax profits by 3 per cent last year.

Irish revenues for the Dutch-owned firm rose by 3 per cent, to €36.7 million.

The publisher paid a dividend of €9 million. This followed a dividend of €12 million paid out in 2008. It incurred restructuring charges of €87,000 in 2008 with staff numbers dropping from 124 to 106. However, the company’s staff numbers last year increased by four to 110.

The firm’s Shannon base also manages the production of a number of journals owned by other members of the group.

According to the directors’ statement, they “are pleased with the level of business and year end financial position. The present level of activity is expected to be sustained for the foreseeable future.”

The company had accumulated profits of €24 million at the end of December last.

The accounts show that the rest of world accounted for €22 million of all sales, the EU accounted for €11 million and sales worth €3 million were recorded in the UK.

According to the directors, “the principal risks and uncertainties facing the company arise from the competitive and rapidly changing nature of its markets, the increasingly technological nature of its products and services, legal and regulatory uncertainties and economic conditions”.