THE BANK OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8692, 8 October 1891, Page 5

THE BANK OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

SERIOUS LOSSES.

SIX POUNDS PER SHARE WRITTEN

:• OFF. ■ • Press Association.—Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.

London, October C. ; The directors of the Bank of South Australia do . not propose to pay a dividend this year, but recommend that £6 per share be written oft, and that the whole of the reserve fund be appropriated to meet losses. In a circular to the shareholders the directors of the Bank of South Australia regret that several advances made in Melbourne are unsafe. They were made by a former manager, and it is necessary to place the assets there on a sound foundation. The Adelaide assets will also have to be written down to a safe point. It is proposed to appropriate £100,000 of the reserve, to reduce the capital to £000,000, and appropriate £37,700 (the half-year's profits), along with' £10,000 previously brought forward. In all other respects'the bank is perfectly sound. The profits for the last four years have averaged £69,000, and there is every likelihood that the same rate will be continued, which will enable them to resume paying dividends and build up a new reserve fund. There have been no losses in South Australia for the last four years.

The head-office of the. Bank of South Australia is at 31, Lombard-street, London. 'i'ne directors are:—Sir John EI. Kennaway, Bart., M.P., Messrs. John Balfour, A. G. Norman, James Gilchrist, George Main, J. W. Arbuthnot, Oscar de Satge. The general manager is Mr. James Anderson. The directors in Adelaide aro Sir William Milne, Mr. James Harvey, Mr. W. J. Briiul. There are twenty-three branches in South Australia, and branches in-Melbourne and Sydney. The balancesheet up to the 31st of December, last gave the following particulars : —Amount paid up per share, £25; liability per share, £25 ; dividend and bonus per annum, 6 per cent.; paid-up capital, £800,000; capital subscribed, £1,600,000 ; capital paid up, £800,000; total capital liability callable and reserved under charter, £800,000; reserve fund, £100,000 ; dividend, £24,000 ; undivided £10,396 ; notes in circulation, £132,948 bills payable and bills in circulation, £342,275; total assets, £4,979,179. During the present year the shares in London have fluctuated from £26 to £20. The latest sales in Adelaide were about the last-named figure.