Lawter International Inc. said special charges and writeoffs resulted in a sharp decline in the 1985 fourth-quarter earnings and a net loss of $5.4 million for the full year.
The Northbrook printing-ink products and specialty chemicals firm said its quarterly earnings dropped 70 percent, to $873,000, or 5 cents a share, from $3 million, or 17 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.
As Lawter previously disclosed, the latest quarter`s results were reduced by one-time charges for inventory accounting adjustments and writeoffs of an acquisition-related option contract and obsolete inventories.
Sales rose 3 percent, to $25.7 million from $25 million.
Lawter blamed the full-year loss on a tax charge of $14 million related to undistributed earnings of foreign subsidiaries previously deemed to be permanently invested overseas. The loss was in contrast to net income of $14.9 million, or 86 cents a share, in 1984.
Full-year revenues slipped 2 percent, to $96.8 million from $98.4 million in 1984.
