ASSOCIATED ELECTRICAL INDUSTRIES, LIMITED
STRONG FINANCIAL POSITION
THE fortieth annual general meeting of Associated Electrical Industries, Ltd., was held on Friday, March 29th, at Bush House, Aldwych, London, W.C. Sir Felix J. C. Pole (the chairman) presided.
The chairman said: Once again your directors are able to present a statement of accounts which they hope the stockholders will regard as satisfactory. The profit for the year, before pro- viding for depreciation and taxation, is £1,470,265, the largest profit earned in the history of the company, and an increase of £70,766, or 5 per cent. over the previous year.
The profit for the year, after deducting taxation and depreciation, is £477,083 (as compared with £664,308 for the previous year). Your directors recommend a dividend on the ordinary stock at the rate of to per cent. per annum, less tax, leaving a balance to be carried forward of £253,118, as compared with £251,647 brought in from the previous account.
I will now deal with our balance-sheet. Creditors, loans, accrued charges, and reserves for contingencies (£3,749,768) and amounts owing to subsidiary companies (£125,539) total £3,875,307, an increase of £325,745. The loan from bankers amounted to £19,006, a decrease of £393,994. On the assets side shareholdings and debentures in subsidiary companies and investments other than British Government securities total £4,319,717, a decrease of £104,102, the main reduction being in our interests in other subsidiary companies, which have been reduced from £327,152 to £217,754. I may add that the book value of our investments is very substantially below their real worth. The stocks and materials on hand, debtors, &c., which together amount to £5,368,474, show an increase of £175,915. Cash and British Government securities at £471,962 show an increase of £97,211.
On this occasion I do not propose to say more about our busi- ness, other than to tell you that the Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company, with which the accounts before you are mainly con- cerned, have on hand a larger volume of orders than ever before.
Although ours is a reserved industry, we have nearly 3,000 employees serving with the Forces, and a scheme is in operation whereby the service pay of married men and single men having dependants is being supplemented by suitable allowances from our various companies. Also much is being done to support the National Savings scheme.
The report was unanimously adopted.
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