Total revenue dipped to £80m ( 115.3m) while pretax profit rose to £6.8m ( 9.8m).

Canadian drug firm Miza took over Tipperary's Antigen pharmaceutical plant in 2001 as part of a rescue plan put together by BDO Simpson Xavier.

Miza and Goldshield announced a sales and marketing agreement for Antigen products.

Goldshield paid about 12m as part of that deal.

Antigen/Miza went into examinership again the following year and a claim of almost 30m was made against Goldshield. That is understood to have represented an alleged default on the schedule of payments which had been agreed with the examiner the previous year.

Goldshield has denied liability for that claim.

Last November, the liquidator of Antigen/Miza took High Court proceedings against Goldshield to retrieve the money. Goldshield has said it is defending the action.