WHOLESALE EGG PRICES. COMPANY PROFITS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 306, 28 December 1939, Page 3

WHOLESALE EGG PRICES.

COMPANY PROFITS.

The Auckland Egg Marketing Committee announces that wholesale egg )iriccs are unchanged, as follows:—Hen: First grade, 1/9 Mi dozen; B grade, 1/7V4; (J grade, 1 /2V6. Duck: First grade, 1/8% dozen; B grade, 1/7Vi.

Country storekeepers' minimum buyinjf !*>ices foT first (trade eggs are: Hen, 1/4% dozen; duck, 1/3%.

AUSTRALIAN RETURNS.

LEVEL MAINTAINED.

Net profits of 70 companies covering a representative range as disclosed in ba a nee-sheets published during the second halt ot 1939 were maintained at a level approximating that of the previous year. 1 rofits for the year ended 1939 represented 10.9 per cent on paid capital against slightly more than 11 per cent for the previous trading year. Dividends were about 4 per cent lower, suggesting, the Sydney Stock Exchange Research and Statistical Bureau points out in an analysis of the figures, that dnectors had adopted a policy of cautious conservation. SEVENTY COMPANIES. 1938. 19.39. t £ Paid capital .... 70,410,709 71.211M59 Net profits 7,H«>r>.«iO<) 7,805|9J8 Total dividends . . (i,072.341 0,391,473 During the year ended in the second half of 1938 the companies appropriated 84.8 per cent of net earnings for the payment of dividends, but for 1939 the proportion dropped to 81,8 per cent. Lower profits for the 1939 year were earned by 27 companies, representing about 38'/4 per cent. Increases were recorded by 43 companies, or 61% per cent of the total number. Discussing the present trend of profits the survey draws attention to the important changes since the outbreak of war, which will create a wet of conditions substantially different to those which prevailed during the period before September.