FACTS FOR INVESTORS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 249, 20 October 1928, Page 4

FACTS FOR INVESTORS.

THE TREND OF VALUES.

GAS SHAKES.

The stress of competition has made it difficult for many of the smaller gas companies in the Dominion to earn regular dividends, but the larger ones have so far proved quite able to hold their own under modern conditions. Thus each of the three leading gas companies of New Zealand are in such a sound position that their shares command a substantial premium. £1 shares in the Auckland Co. are worth £1 3/1 to-day; in the Wellington Gas Co., £1 10/; and in the Christchurch concern, £1 5/. In each case the rate of dividend is 8 per cent and the same percentage Is paid by the big Sydney _ corporation, Australian Gaslight Co., which, with a paid-up capital of over £3,500,000, couia probably pay a higher dividend rate if this were not prohibited by legislation. For several years the Christchurch Company paid 10 per cent dividend, but in 1927, after 63 years of successful operations, it returned some of its capital to shareholders and at the same time lowered the dividend rate to 8 per cent.

There is no more popular scrip on the local market than those of the Auckland Gas Co. and they are always turning over. For marketing purposes they are giltedged, as buyers are always on the lookout for them, subject, of course, to occasional market fluctuations. The market price on October 1 in recent years has been:—l 924, £1 4/9; 1925, £1 2/3: 1926, £1 3/4; 1927, £1 3/; 1928, £1 3/4. Having already a capital of £1,371,645, the company went to their shareholders and debenture holders in April last for another £200,00 to assist with necessary developments, and at 6% per cent the amount was promptly over subscribed, despite the fact that money was fairly tight at the time. No debentures, therefore, were available for the public. With the growth of electrical undertakings, a growth that has accelerated in recent years, gas companies have had to meet fierce competition, but so far there is no evidence that such strongly entrenched organisations as the Auckland Gas Co. will be unable to meet every call that may be made on their enterprise and resources.