COMPANY NOTES
HS. WHITESIDE AND CO. continue to ,expand their interests. In 1957 they acquired the Elizabeth Shaw group of chocolate makers, last year it was Maconochie's foods, giving the company an interest in the grocery trade. Whitesides are perhaps best known for their 'Sun Pat' products. On the acquisition of the Maconochie business that company had made a loss (to December 31, 1958) of £71,275; the chairman, Mr. T. A. Barnes, advises that it is now trading at a profit and that two more sub' sidiaries (bought this year), Crooky Foods and Dulect Confectionery, will add to the company's profits. Such expansion has necessitated re- organisation, such as the closing of factories at Wallington, King's Lynn and Leeds, which will result in a saving in overheads and about £200,000 being realised from their sale. The net profit for the group after tax was £141,035 on the issued ordinary capital, now £800,000. The dividend is 30 per cent. plus a bonus of 10 per cent. which, with long-term prospects improving, gives the Is. ordinary shares at 5s. xd. a good yield of 8 per cent.
Venners have won orders from local autho- rities at home for Park-O-M eters on the strength of their experience in manufacturing these meters for overseas markets where they have sold 25,000 against the initial 1,100 in this country. The company is well known for its range of time- switches and electro-mechanical instruments; its newest line is the Silver Zinc accumulator manufactured by a subsidiary. The company has a steady record for the year to December 31, 1958; the net profit was £38,852, providing cover of 28.5 per cent. for the dividend of 15 per cent., which has been paid for several years, plus a one-for-two scrip issue this year. The balance sheet is strong, and allows for increasing activity. The 5s. ordinary shares are around 17s. 6d. xd. to yield 4.5 per cent. The next accounts will be made up to July 31, 1959.
Mr. J. Gaul, experienced in the property market and chairman of Sun Real Estates, has done very well for the company. For the year to March 31, 1959, the net profit jumped from £8,630 to £25,195, and the ordinary dividend from 81 per cent. to. 22 per cent. Furthermore, the chairman (who has increased his unsecured interest-free loan to the company from £28,917 to £140,340) forecasts next year's dividend as high as 40 per cent., which seems possible since the company is making further property acquisitions this year and all but 5 per cent. of its present interests are in commercial properties. Naturally enough on the dividend statement, the 10s. ordinary shares jumped about 10s. 6d. and have improved further to the present price of 52s. 6d. to yield as much as 7.6 per cent. on the forecast dividend. The future will prove, when the company has had a longer record of success, whether the shares should be on a lower yield basis.
Unit Trusts—Rank Insurance Group.
Every £100 invested in Consolbits over five years ago now has a cash value of £212. The initial income return on this investment was £4 I Is. per cent.; it has now increased to £7 18s. per cent. This group can now claim another suc- cess with Insurance Units. This is their silver jubilee year, and they are making their fiftieth half-yearly distribution of 11.0933d. a record high which, with the payment made on January 31, makes a total of Is. 6.4550d. for the current year. For the first half of 1959 the rate of capital appreciation for Consolbits was 22.6 per cent. and for Insurance Units 23.4 per cent., the latter beating all other units, whose average for the period was 12.9 per cent.
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