LONDON LOANS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 9, 21 December 1933, Page 7

LONDON LOANS

(PAYMENT OF INTEREST Exchange Burden Problem AUSTRALIAN CASES By Telegraph—Press Assn —Copyright. SYDNEY, December 20. A London message on December 16 stated: ' ‘The House of Lords allowed the appeal against the Appeal Court’s confirmation of Mr Justice Farwell’s decision concerning Adelaide Electric.” (Mr James Farwell’s decision in the Chancery Division was to the effect that holders on the English register of A and C preference stocks in the Adelaide Electric Supply Co. were entitled to bo paid in sterling and not in Australian currency.) In April last the Court of Appeal in London dismissed the appeal of the Adelaide Electric Supply Co. against the above judgment and the case was carried to ths House of Lords whose decision is now summed up by an Adelaide legal authority as placing on stock-holders resident in England the burden of exchange between Adelaide and London, and those entitled to a preference dividend of £5 per cent, will receive in London only £4. When tho Court of Appeal gave its judgment it followed a then recent precedent of its cwn known as the Broken Hill ’Proprietary debenture case. It now appears that tho Court of Appeal was wrong in its decision, but the Broken Hill Proprietary abided by it and possibly has now lost its right of appeal anyway. An Adelaide telegram on April last explained that since March, 1931, the Adelaide Electric Supply Co., Ltd., acting on tho advice ot its counsel, had paid dividends to holders of preference stock ou the London register by cheques drawn on Adelaide, the effect being that English stock-holders had had to pay tho exchange between Adelaide and London. Tho Prudential Assurance Co., of London, a holder of A and C preference stock on tho London register, obtained judgment in February to the effect that it was entitled to payment of dividends in English currency.