PM Group, the Dublin headquartered group that provides construction, engineering and project management services, said full-year pretax profits fell by 8 per cent to €8.88 million for 2015 while operating profits were up 24 per cent to €8.97 million.

Turnover in the year to the end of December was €349.5 million, broadly in line with the prior year when it reported an 80 per cent rise in full-year revenues to €355 million.

Net assets last year increased from €44 million to €49 million.

The Tallaght-based company, which employs 2,000 people globally, including about 1,100 in Ireland, is chaired by former Enterprise Ireland chief executive Dan Flinter, who is also chairman of the board of the Irish Times Ltd. The group, which is 43 years-old, operates across Europe, the US and Asia. Almost 60 per cent of its business is now generated outside of Ireland.

Chief executive Dave Murphy said PM Group had seen solid revenue growth in key sectors last year with €135 million in new work orders booked.

“The Irish market performed strongly in 2014 with revenue well ahead of the prior year, and the UK has also been a significant contributor to our overall profit growth. We benefitted from large-scale FDI into Ireland by the global pharmaceutical industry in 2014, in particular by new entrants, and have been able to capitalise on our specialist pharmaceutical expertise in delivering high-tech projects in a number of locations. We remain positive about future growth opportunities across our sectors,” he said.

"As a direct result of the relaxing of dairy quotas, we also delivered several new infant nutritional projects across Europe; including in Ireland, the UK, Holland and Germany. The global expansion of the data centre industry continues to be an area of strong growth and we see further new opportunities with our key clients in this sector," Mr Murphy added.