Italian dairy giant Parmalat Finanziaria SpA, which has operations around the world, said Tuesday that its earnings before taxes rose by more than a third in the first half of 2005 as the organization raised profitability at all its units.
Parmalat said it had about $125 million in pre-tax earnings during the first six months of 2005, up from $93 million in the same period a year earlier. Revenue declined to $2.36 billion from $2.39 billion in the first half of 2004 following its massive fraud scandal.
Parmalat collapsed at the end of 2003 under $14 billion in previously hidden debt, and nearly a dozen executives were sentenced to serve jail time. A government-appointed administrator has since run the insolvent company, and recently announced that the company has drafted a debt-to-equity swap. If approved in August, a relisting of the company should follow shortly.
The company has also started filing claims against dozens of Italian and international banks, saying they knew the dairy company was failing even while raising funds shortly before news of the accounting scandal broke in December 2003.Earlier this summer, a federal judge dismissed an investor class-action suit against the U.S. units of Big Four firm Deloitte & Touche and international firm Grant Thornton. But the suits, brought by Parmalat's administrator, will be allowed to continue against the accounting firms' international units.
