FINANCIAL NOTES .
MARINE INSURANCE LOSSES.
SHORTLY after the War there was quite a boom in the forma- tion of new insurance companies to take advantage on the one hand of the absence of the German reinsurance companies, and on the other hand to participate in the apparently profit- able conditions then prevailing in marine insurance. Of these companies few that were not formed under the auspices of old-established concerns have survived, and sonic of the older companies which launched out into marine insurance on their own account have since gone out of the business altogether. One comparatively young company which launched out actively after the War was the Consolidated Assurance, whose business was carried on for several years with every appear- ance of prosperity. The latest accounts, however, show that heavy losses are anticipated in the Marine Department, the company carrying £300,000 to its Marine Fund this year in order to increase the Reserve, and the Profit and Loss account shows an adverse balance of £225,176. The company's fully paid £1 shares rose to nearly 24 in 1921, when the dividend was 25 per cent., but their present quotation is about 2s., and no price is quoted for the partly paid shares, which are £1 shares on which only 2s. per share has been paid up. The dis- closure of these poor results has brought down the prices of the shares of some of the companies formed in association with old-established insurance undertakings, although there is no reason to suppose that in their ease traditional caution has not been exercised in the selection of marine business.
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