SOUTH SEA PHOSPHATE

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 51, 29 August 1917, Page 7

SOUTH SEA PHOSPHATE

SALE OF ENEMY INTERESTS.

4H (PROM OUK OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 29th June.

Among enemy shareholdings offered for sale from time to time lately by order of the Public Trustee, few, if any, command as much interest as the block of shares in the Pacific Phosphate Company, which are to be sold on 26th July. The concern its a British undertaking registered in 1902, and owns concessions for phosphate deposits in the South Seas. Some of these deposits are on islands which formerly belonged to Germany, and this explains the enemy interest in- tlie company represented by the shares seized by the Government. The company has a capital of £1,200,000, of ;which £975,000 is issued, £125,000 being in 7 per cent, first preference, £100,000 in 6 per cent, second preference, and £750,000 in ordinary £1 shares, half of the last being only 10s paid. The shares to be auctioned by Messrs. Foster and Cranfield consist of £42,610 first preference, £19,545 second preference, and £370,665 ordinary shares, of the hust £186,976 being 10s paid. The enemy holding therefore constitutes nearly half Dhe issued capital, and practically a controlling .portion of the ordinary shares.

The -enterprise has been a big commercial success, and the demand for fertilisers is likely to be keener in the future than ever it has been in the past. The. profit has averaged about £127,500 per annum, and the ordinary dividend just under 25-J per cent, per annum, without taking into account a share bonus of 200 per cent, in 1908, and of 33i per cent, in 1909. An issue of £60,000 5 per cent, debentures, since paid off, was made in 1906, and in 1914 the £100,000 second preference shares were -offered for tfubscription, but tlhe first preference and the ordinary shares have never been available for purchase by 'the general investor in any quantity. Having regard to the status and prospects of the company, there is likely to be keen competition for the enemy holdings. The shares will first be offered in ono lot.