COMPANY NEWS

Evening Star, Issue 22892, 25 February 1938, Page 6

COMPANY NEWS

NESTLE AND ANGLO-SWISS SHARE CAPITAL REDUCED ? LIQUID RESOURCES TOO LARGE Resolutions for the reduction of the share capital of the Nestle and AngloSwiss Holding. Company from 116,000,000 francs to 58,000,000 francs by the repayment of 100 francs a share, have been passed at the company’s meeting held at Cham, Switzerland. The date of the repayment will be announced later. Nestle and Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company, Cham, Switzerland (the parent manufacturing company), owns all the ordinary capital in the Australian organisation, and guarantees regular payment of preference dividends to Australian shareholders. At the extraordinary meeting at which the capital reduction was approved, the president (Mr Edouard Muller) said that the warning that had frequently been uttered in the past by his regretted predecessor, that we were living in extraordinary times, because increasingly justified every day. There was almost complete confusion in the economic sphere, which . provoked - a lack of confidence, visibly reflected in market quotations, though happily there seemed lately to be some sign of a praiseworthy tendency to meet reasonable claims of labour while leaving an adequate return on capital; but this pquitable provision for _ the legitimate expectations of both sides implied a reciprocal good will and confidence which for the moment was still lacking, and the situation generally was further aggravated by monetary instability, which deprived international exchange, so vital a,necessity to world economics, of. a firm foundation. Thiswas- all • the more disturbing in that monetary questions nowadays were, governed much more by polities than by monetary technique, and in _ such conditions, while the conduct of industrial and commercial affairs continued increasingly more difficult the management of capital was even more uncertain.

The international character of their organisation compelled them to retain important amounts in foreign currency. That, however, was a normal risk for any business of their size and ramifications, but they were naturally seeking to limit such risks to a minimum, and they had centralised in Switzerland such of their funds as were not required for the good conduct of their various undertakings abroad. As their liquid resources had increased beyond what they considered were their requirements for the convenient carrying out or the rational extension of their activities in their own special domain, they had come to the conclusion, after ripe reflection, that this surplus should be placed at the disposal of shareholders.

MILKE AND GHOYCE HALF-YEARLY DIVIDENDS. [Pas United Paeaa Association.] AUCKLAND, February 24. : The directors of Milne and Choyce have declared interim dividends for the half-year ended January 31 at the rate of preference 6 per cent, per annum, B preference 7 per cent, per annum, and ordinary shares and debenture stock 5 per cent, per annum, payable on April 9.

NIKAU BACON YEAR’S DIVIDEND 8 PER CENT. ' Annual accounts issued by the Nikau Bacon Company for the year ended December 31 show net profits at £2,730, compared with £2,906 the previous year. In their report the directors _ state that the amount to credit of profit and loss account, including £3,115 brought forward, was £5,845. From this dividends paid in February and l August and income tax, £1,996, was taken, leaving an available balance of £3,849. The directors now recommend a final dividend of 4 per cent, on ordinary and preference shares, making 8 per cent, for the year, absorbing £BBB, placing to reserve £SOO, leaving £2,461 to be carried forward. The profit and loss account shows gross profits of £3,767, compared with £2,684 for the previous 12 months. Depreciation written off is £837, compared with £478. Chief items in the balance sheet with the figures for 1936 shown in parentheses are as follow; — Liabilities.—Paid capital, £22,500 (£22,000); creditors, £12,592. Assets. —Freehold land and buildings, £16,792 (£16,438); plant, etc., £5,648 (£5,015) ; stock, £4,800 (£3,675): goodwill, £4,000 (£4,000).

UNITED STARR-BOWKETT BUILDING SOCIETY APPROPRIA- > TIONS. A meeting of members of the United Starr-Bowkett Building Society was held in the secretary’s office last evening tp dispose of £I,BOO by ballot and sale. A ballot was held for the eightysecond appropriation in No. 8 group, cluster No. 46, which was held by one member, being drawn. A sale of £BOO the forty-second appropriation in No. 10 group realised £25 per hundred. In No. 8 group, for the eighty-third appropriation of £SOO by sale, there were no buyers, and a ballot was held, cluster No. 32, held by one member, being drawn.

SAVINGS BANK FUNDS IH GILT-EDGED AND MORTGAGES Australian savings banks’ returns show that more than three-quarters of their funds are invested in Government and similar securities. __ In New Zealand the policy has been different, assistance being given by the savings banks to mortgage schemes. Thus the Auckland Savings Bank has followed the custom of keeping approximately equal parts of its funds invested in mortgages on the one hand and Government and local body securities on the other. Savings banks in other centres have gone in for Government stocks to a greater extent, while the Post Office Savings Bank, it is understood, has invested solely in Government securities.