One-off costs last year contributed to pretax profits at the main Irish arm of communications giant BT last year declining by 36 per cent to €28.1 million.

Figures just lodged with the Companies Office show that BT Communications Ireland Ltd recorded the drop in profits in spite of revenues increasing from €425.7 million to €438.2 million in the year to the end of March 31st.

According to the directors’ report, the firm’s profits were hit by one-off costs including a lease exit charge and accelerated depreciation relating to the retirement of legacy platforms.

The firm’s pretax profits last year dropped from €43.96 million to €28.1 million. Profits were also hit by redundancy costs totalling €2.27 million. The cost of sales last year increased by 9 per cent from €295.9 million to €323.8 million.

The directors state the increase in revenue of 3 per cent “is a positive result given the overall revenue decline” in the market.

Operating profits last year decreased by €15 million to €23.1 million.

The figures show the emoluments to the firm’s directors rose by more than 64 per cent to €1.58 million.