W. R. CARPENTER AND CO

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 212, 8 September 1938, Page 11

W. R. CARPENTER AND CO

NEW ISSUE OF CAPITAL Sir Walter Carpenter, chairman of W, R. Carpenter and Co., Ltd., surprised shareholders at the annual meeting at Sydney last week when he announced that 100,000 shares of £1 would be issued at par. The terms of the issue were not disclosed. As the company was now engaged in so many different branches of activity, Sir Walter said, the management could look with a certain degree of calmness upon any vicissitudes in markets. “Two years ago I called attention to the fact that the signs of prosperity were not built on solid foundations,” he said, “and that within a period of two years we would see commodities back to somewhere near the depression prices. “In 1937 copra prices rose to about £25 a ton; they are now back in the vicinity of £lO 10s to £ll a ton. Other commodities, such as lead, copper, tin, wheat, and wool, have depreciated about 40 to 50 per cent, of their value and there does not seem any prospect of a rise in the immediate future. There is no reason whatever to be pessimistic, but it is far better to acknowledge the position and plan to meet it than to bury one' head in the ground and make no preparations. “The company to-day does not look for revenue from the purchase of copra. For the past few years it has regarded copra merely as a medium of exchange, so that a rise or fall in the commodity does not materially affect the earnings of the company.” Sir Walter Carpenter said that the company had shown “tremendous expansion” during the past three years. In 1934 the net profit was £36,000 ana in 1938 £lll,OOO, or, in other wo'-ds, the net profit had trebled itself. Of the capital of the company, nearly £250,000 had been inoperative. This had been used in acquiring new shipping tonnage, in entering heavily

into aviation, and in planting new estates. Portion of this capital would become remunerative in the coming yew and the balance a few years later. Planting of a new area of nearly 5000 acres had been completed, and other properties had been acquired. (Since 1934 the capital of the company has been increased from £339,783 to £740,000. In 1934 115,000 shares were issued to shareholders at par, and during 1935 and 1936 the contributing shares, then paid to 10a, were called up to the full amount cf £1 each. Various capital issues have been made by the directors to acquit e business and because of internal arrangements between the company and its subsidiaries).