COMPANY NOTES
HARPER ENGINEERING AND ELEC- TRONICS has made very considerable expansion, having acquired eight companies during the past fourteen months for a considera- tion of €904,000 in cash and the issue of live million Is. ordinary shares. The group may conic across development difficulties in the future, but its strength lies in the fact that all the new acquisi- tions are in complementary lines of business. covering the field of machine tools, shafts, .jigs. automation, nucleonics and electronics. The past year's figures are not a guide to the future, but the chairman, Mr. C. E. Harper, estimates a trading profit of £700,000 for the year to June 30, 1960, and when the figures for the latest acquisi- tion of B. 0. Morris are included, of over £800,000. In fact he states that earnings for the year will exceed 100 per cent. and eventually will be greatly in excess of this figure. The dividend of 30 per cent, is therefore well covered with plenty of room for an increase, but this is already dis- counted by the present price of the Is, ordinary shares at I2s. although, for the patient share- holder, future prospects undoubtedly look good.
Proprietors of Hays Wharf have, as expected, reported lower profits for the past year, the net profit having fallen from £317,000 to £280,000 (this is the first setback for some years), but the maintained 8 per cent, dividend is still well covered by earnings of 18.2 per cent. The recent capital investment will, of course, attract heavier depre- ciation charges in the future. No doubt the chair- man, Sir Rupert de la Bere, will be able to give shareholders some encouragement for the future, as the il ordinary shares are still around 52s. 6d. to yield 3.1 per cent.
Killinghall (Rubber) Development ± increased their output of rubber by no less than 25 per cent. for the year ended June 30, 1959, the net average price obtained being 21d. per lb. higher than for the previous year. Gross proceeds rose from £34,948 to £48,360, but with some £7,000 less being received from the tin tribute. The profit for the year was £32,485, against £35,844, but with a tax saving the net profit is up from £15,874 to £21,707. The chairman, Mr. Jack Addinsell, anticipates even better results for the current year and refers to a statement made in the early days of the company, when his father was chairman, as to the then board's confidence in the com- pany's future. This has been well founded, for in this the company's jubilee year a 100 per cent. dividend is declared and it is proposed to issue a bonus of one for one in 2s. ordinary shares, thus restoring the issued capital to £52,500, the figure at which it stood prior to the repayment in 1957. The 2s. ordinary shares at 17s. 6d. look attractive for the future.
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