COMPANY MEETING
CONSTABLE, HART AND CO.
INCREASED PROFITS
THE thirty-sixth annual general meeting of Constable, Hart and Company, Limited, was held on December 17th, at &Axton Hall, London.
Mr. H. H. Holmes, the chairman, who presided, said: A perusal of the balance-sheet will show you the action that has been taken in connexion with our shareholding in land development companies and money owing to us by them. War conditions have resulted in an almost complete cessation of sales of land for building purposes. Accordingly, your board considered it necessary that a careful in- vestigation should be made as to the effect of these conditions on these items in our balance-sheet. Acting on the report of an expert of high repute your board has considered it advisable to wipe off against general reserve the whole of the shareholding in the land companies, L16,5oo, together with £7,500 of the debt.
The profit for the year is £30,247, as against £16,044 for the previous 12 months. Most of the departments of the company have been, and continue to be, extremely busy in their various spheres. The value of work in hand at the end of September, r94o, consti- tutes a ,record for the company.
Viewing the whole position with all due care and prudence, your board has no hesitation in recommending for your approval an in- creased dividend for the year at 8 per cent., as against 4 per cent. for the previous year. It is prciposed to transfer £15,000 from the profits of the year to general reserve account, making that account £21,000 all told, leaving the carry-forward at £19,131.
Shareholders will doubtless wish to know something of the likely effect of the excess profits tax on possible future dividends. It is only fair to warn you that even were the company to have an ex- ceedingly good year's trading the incidence of this tax and other taxation makes it unlikely that a dividend as high as 8 per cent. would be justified.
It is my firm opinion that in a company with so many ramifica- tions and interests as Constable, Hart and Co., Limited, no board can adequately direct its operations unless it has in its composition a majority of members who, being full-time officers of the company, have !graduated in the business through the various steps to the executive and have thus become fit and proper persons to have an authoritative voice in the company's affairs. If, coupled with this essential and intimate day-to-day knowledge of the business, the board also has the assistance of a lesser number of experienced busi- ness men who can take a mature and detached view of any unusual
situation arising. • The report was unanimously adopted.
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