FINANCIAL NOTES.
The outstanding feature in the financial situation continues to be the steady stream of capital flotations. During the past week there has been a successful flotation of about £2,000,000 in new capital by the Whitehall Electric Investments Company, and a Sheffield loan for £1,000;000 was,sucCessfully placed. At the moment of writing -interest centres in an issue to be made in a- few days' time of £2,800,000 in consolidated 6i per cent. bonds in the Barcelona Traction, Light and Power company at the price of 91, 'while next week the out- standing feature promises to be the flotation of the English portion of the Hungarian Loan. Precise details are not 'yet available, but the market is looking for anything from £6,000,000 up to about £8,000,000, and is expecting that the bonds should give a yield of &Hy 8 per cent. There will be no outside guarantees, but the specially hypothecated revenues will be very large. A complete scheme of control by a special Commis- sioner acting for the League of Nations is also a feature of the plan for reorganizing the finances of Hungary.
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• If demonstration were needed-of the artificial character of the so-called trade boom of 1919, it is certainly to be found in the disastrous results which have attended many of the industifal flotations of that year. In other words, prices were at an impossibly high level, and these artificial prices and profits found their way into -the gloWing forecasts 'which accompanied some of ;the prospectuses of that period. Of such it would be difficult, perhaps, to Und a more striking instance than that of the great_ motor combine known as Harper Bean, whose affairs were discussed yesterday at a meeting called to consider a voluntary winding-up. Floated at the end of 1919 with a share capital of £6,000,000 equally divided into .8 per cent. cumulative preference shares and ordinary shares of D. each, -high dividends were prophesied even for the ordinary shares. Not a single dividend has ever been paid either on the preference ondinary, while both have latterly been quoted at about 'Sit. per 'Share:- "-At 'yesterday's meeting a Com-
,: mittee of Invesation was appointed.
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