27 JULY 1934, Page 32

PROMISE AND PERFORMANCE.

It is always satisfactory to be able to record the occasions when the first report of a public company fulfils the forecasts of the prospectus. Such is the case as regards the first report just published of McDougall's Trust, Limited. Last November subscriptions were invited to its 5 per cent. Preference share capital of £1,000,000, and the figures now published are well up to the expectations held out in the prospectus. McDougall's Limited, in which the Trust acquired all the share capital, achieved a profit for the year to March 31st of £176,831, against £169,262 for 1933. The Trust has now written off the whole of its preliminary' expenses of £74,057, to the extent of £50,000 from Preference Share Premium Account, and as to £24,057 from income account. A sum of £20,000 has been applied to set up a Preference Shareholders' Reserve Fund,

which must amount to the net cost of two years' Preference dividends before any dividend in excess of 5 per cent. may be paid on the Ordinary share capital. The dividend for the short period of the Trust's first accounts is 2 per cent. actual, leaving £10,561 to be carried forward.