CUNARD PROFITS FALL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 109, 11 May 1931, Page 11

CUNARD PROFITS FALL

SHAREHOLDINGS DISCOUNTED MILLION FROM RESERVE FUND The reduction in the net profits of the Cunard Steamship Company from £809,639 in 1929, to £18,601 in 1930. was reported in a cable message published on March 31. The ordinary dividend, which had been 71 per cent, for three years, was passed and the preference dividend of £135,000 was drawn from the reserves of undivided profits, leaving £278.867 to be carried forward. The gross income was £2,662,396, which is £966,000 less than in 1929. Expenses and depreciation were £2,398,465, which is only £156,000 lower. Debenture interest and other items amounted to £245,330, as against £264,83 i. Tho reserve fund was increased in 1929 to £1,500,000. Tne directors stated in their report that, having considered the values of shares in subsidiary and other companies, they had decided to use a portion of the reserve fund to write down the book values by £861,304, and had added the difference between this sum and £1,000,000 to the existing contingencies reserve account. The reserve fund, consequently, appeals in the balance-sheet at £500,000. The company’s assets total £.17,734, 243, which is £722,975 less than in 1929, and nearly £2,000,000 below the 1928 total. Steamships are valued at £8,092, 302, a reduction of £437,000; and properties at £608,565, a reduction of £16,000. Shares in subsidiary and other companies and deposits with foreign Governments total £6,958,875, a net reduction of £770,404. “The company's Australian and New Zealand services were carried on under increasingly difficult conditions during the year,” the report states. “The reduced purchasing power of tho peoples of Australia and New Zealand and the restricted tariff in Australia, coupled with the fall in the exchange, resulted in a serious diminution in the outward cargoes, while the loss on exchange on homeward prepaid freights has been a serious factor. ’’ The fleets of the Cunard Company and associated companies at the end of 1930 comprised S 5 ships of a total gross tonnage of 915,938, against 92 ships of a total gross tonnage of 957,19!) at the emi of 1929.