(Just-Drinks) - Brown-Forman has toasted a healthy lift in net sales and "underlying" operating profits, as fiscal 2012 returned to "pre-2008 levels". The US-based spirits firm, which sold off its Californian wine interests to Concha y Toro in March last year, said earlier today (6 June) that operating profits in the year to the end of April rose on an underlying basis by 9% year-on-year. The wine sale, which netted Brown-Forman US$238m, pulled down net profits for the year, however, by 10% to $513.2m.