NEUCHATEL ASPHALTE COMPANY
THE 67th ordinary general meeting of the Neuchatel Asphalte Co., Limited, was held on June 23rd, at the offices, 58 Victoria Street, Westminster.
Lt.-Col. P. D. Ionides, D.S.O. (chaiman), in moving the adoption of the report and the distribution of a dividend of 24 per cent. on the ordinary capital, said:
The profits of the company have been once more adversely affected by the international situation, which in certain cases has caused shrinkage of the work available, and difficulties in the execu- tion of the contracts owing to the disturbed conditions.
Currency depreciation and in one case exceptionally bad weather abroad has also caused some diminution of the earnings. On the other hand we have succeeded in strengthening the company's financial structure. For the previous year ended December 31st, 1937, the profit and loss account enjoyed a windfall in the shape of a transfer of reserve for contingencies no longer required amounting to £15,311. Allowing for this, the falling-off in actual earnings amounts to £8,019 for the year just ended.
Some of our foreign interests are vulnerable and we must recog- nise and face this indiputable fact. We endeavour, of course, to protect ourselves against devaluation. We have a wealth of good will and our eggs are by no means all in one basket. Moreover, the mangement maintains a very close watch on all our activities; it is progressive and alive to all new developments and possibilities of expansion.
Three years ago, when the balance-sheet was presented in a new form for the first time setting out the total earnings of the com- pany, including its subsidiaries, it was explained that reserves were made equal to the profits not distributed by the subsidiary com- panies. In the present balance-sheet this figure is £34,196. This is not a reserve in the sense of a necessity to provide for a loss or anticipated loss, and this amount could quite properly have been placed under the heading of surpluses on the other side of the balance-sheet. The profits it represents are reserved because they have not been declared as dividends and are being employed as working capital.
The Travers Mine Concession has been again written down by £,o,000.
Road making and its allied industries are essentially occupations which flourish most in times of peace. A war might very well bring home to the authorities, if nothing else would, the inadequacy of many of our main arteries, but I think it must be accepted as a condition of the present unhappy war atmosphere that so long as it lasts the much-needed expansion of our road system will have to wait. The report was unanimously adopted.
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