AN EXCEPTIONAL LOAN.
The success of the Potash Syndicate Bonds is the more noteworthy because until a week or two before the issue it had been thought that London would only be called upon to take about £2,000,000. Owing, however, to the sudden determina- tion of Washington to turn down New York's share in the Loan on the grounds that the money was required to finance a Monopoly, the London portion of the issue was suddenly raised to the large amount of £5,000,000. Nevertheless, such was the rush of subscriptions that the lists were closed within a few Minutes of the opening. In the first place, the sponsorship— Messrs. J. Henry Schroder and Co;,- and Higginson and Co.— was exceptionally good ; in the second place, the yield was the very fine one of 7} per cent. ; in the third place, and most important of all, the security was of an exceptional character, consisting roughly of not only-hypothecating the proceeds of the sale of potash, to all countries outside Germany, to the bondholders, but empowering Messrs. J. Henry Schroder and Co., as Receiving Bank, to receive the actual proceeds and to set aside in every calendar month and retain a sum equal to one-twelfth of the amount required for the annual service of the bonds. In other words; the -Loan might be said to have constituted' a first class bankers' advance against the security of an impoitant commodity. Finally, while the Loan was a prodigious success, I think it will probably be found that once again the support was professional rather than on the part of the ordinary investor. By " professional " I mean in this case leading trust and insurance companies and financial concerns of one kind and another, these institutions being in a position to recognize quickly the merits of the issue. At the same time, there was also a sufficient measure of response to suggest that, given a sufficiently attractive security, political prejudice against German securities has been lessened, a circumstance, no doubt, partly due to the recent signing of the Locarno Pact. - * * *;
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