EQUITABLE BUILDING

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 36, 12 February 1936, Page 14

EQUITABLE BUILDING

DIVIDEND RECOMMENDED

The directors of the Equitable Building and Investment Company, Ltd., Wellington, in their fifty-eighth annual report to December 31, 1935, state that the profit on the year's working amounted to £8239 7s lid, which is reduced to £3386 17s 5d by the transfer of £4202 TOs 6d to securities depreciation reserve and the provision of £650 for income tax. With the balance brought forward from last year of £2610 8s lOd, less dividend £1902 9s lOd paid on March 1, 1935, there is now £40i)4 16s 5d available for appropriation.

The directors recommend that a dividend equivalent to 4 per cent, per annum on the paid-up capital be paid and that the balance be carried forward to next year.

The outstanding event of the year was the purchase of the mortgage assets (approximately £50,000) of the Wellington Deposit, Mortgage, and Building Association, Ltd., and this transaction is chiefly responsible for ithe increase in the balance-sheet figures. With the exception of £300, however, the year's profit has been derived from the company's own assets. Of even greater importance is the arrangement made with the New Zealand Insurance Co., Ltd., whereby that company's guarantee of the repayment of this company's deposits on due dates is available up to a limit of £150,000; this is equivalent to the establishment by the Equitable Company of a liquid reserve of that amount, and puts the Strength and safety of the company in any'crisis beyond question. "No investment in New Zealand today is safer than .a deposit with the Equitable Building and Investment Company backed by this guarantee." Following on the endorsement at the last annual meeting of the principle of reducing the number of directors to four, Sir Harold Beauchamp and the late Mr. D. W. Anderson immediately resigned from the board. Mr. Malcolm Fraser was appointed chairman and managing director. Messrs. E. R. Dymock and Malcolm Fraser are the retiring directors, and being eligible, offer themselves for re-election. Messrs. E. W. Bucholz and W. S. Wheeler, the retiring auditors, offer themselves for i re-election.

The balance-sheet is as follows:— Capital and liabilities: Nominal capital, 150,000 shares of £1 each, £150,000; subscribed capital, 123,161 shares of £1 each, £123,161; paid-up capital, 123,161 shares of 14s each called up, £86,212 14s; less calls unpaid, £190 10s 2d, £86,022 3s lOd. General reserve, £70,000; reserve for income tax, etc., £1037 6s 4d; deposits and accrued interest, £175,808 19s 9d; mortgage freehold property, £500; sundry creditors, (a) balance purchase money Wellington Deposit, Mortgage, and Building Association, Ltd., and relative reserve for expenses, £10,670 ?,s 3d; Bank of New Zealand,' £425 6s; profit and loss appropriation account, £4094 16s sd; total, £348,558 15s 7d. Assets are as follows: —Loans on mortgage, £355,701 10s 2d; less securities depreciation reserve, £26,466 16s 7d, £329,234 13s 7d; interest outstanding, estimated recoverable, £2943 0s 2d; freehold properties, £16,356 18s 7d; sundry debtors, £19 3s 3d; cash on hand, £5. ■ . ' ,