COURTAULDS' IMPROVEMENT.
Not by any means for the' first time, the market for Home Industrial securities has received a fillip from good results announced by Courtaulds. Moreover, it is a good feature of the management of this Company that the year's results are kept thoroughly secret, a fact clearly proved last week by the jump which occurred in the shares when, after business hours, the directors announced a final dividend of 41 per cent., making 6 per cent. free of tax (as usual) as against 4 per cent. for the previous: year.— Even : more sensational than the rise in the' dividend was the advance in the profits. The extra 2 per cent. tax free represents an amount of £480,000, but the profits were shown to have risen by over £1,000,000, making the highest record of profits since 1929. Once again, however, the directors have pursued a con- servative policy, taking £700,000 from the profits and adding it to the Reserve, raising it to £6,000,000. The directors explain this large appropriation as having been prompted by the fact that the Company's Ibreign investment income benefited largely in the early part of the year by a favourable exchange position which no longer t exists. After making these allocations and paying the dividends, there will remain a balance to be carried forward of £251,438 against £239,388 a year ago.
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