DIVIDEND MAINTAINED

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 62, 15 March 1933, Page 12

DIVIDEND MAINTAINED

KEMPTHORNE, PROSSER CO,

(By Telegraph.) • ■ • , (Special to "The Evening Post") DUNEDIN, This Day. The fifty-fourth report of the directors of Kempthorne, Prosser, and Co.'s New Zealand Drug Co., Ltd., giving the results on the closing of accounts at the end of the financial year on January 31, is as follows:—

"The unappropriated balance brought' forward from the profit and loss account last year was £30,926 18s Bd, to which must be added the net profit for this year of £47,125 lls, making £78,052 9s Bd, less interim dividend for the half-year to July 31, 1932, at 3% per cent., £20,405, leaving to be dealt with £57,647 9s Bd. This it is proposed to apply as follows: —Payment of dividend of 4 per cent., making 7% per cent., for the year, £23,320; contribution to staff provident fund, £2500; and to carry forward to next year £31,827 9s Bd. A dividend of 4 per cent, is recommended for shareholders on the register on March 10, making, with the interim dividend already paid, a total of ~% per cent, for the! year, and if passed by the meeting this will be payable to' shareholders in the Dominion on and after April 6. Dividends due to London shareholders will be remitted hy demand draft, less bank exchange New' Zealand-London at current rate." •

The assets of the company are set down in the balance-sheet at £885,275; stocks are valued at £304,450, and land, buildings, machinery, plant, etc, at Dunedin _ and branches (after allowing for depreciation •amounting to £24,000), £413,941. Customers' book debts are £95.415, while cash in the bank amounts to £25,633. On the profit and.loss account the gross profit, after deducting the net cost of manufacturing and depreciation on plant, buildings, and stock, amounts to £131,957, while salaries, travelling expenses, interest, discount, income and land tax, bad debts, and all other charges are shown at .£84,832.

The dividend was 7% per cent, last year. . I .