LOOKING AHEAD.
In the first place, the prospect of continuing service on the Debenture stock and subsequent redemption is strengthened by the present proposals, which, among other things, ensures the completion of '534' which at present is on the hands of the Company in an unfinished state. In the second place, the first £1,000,000 to be advanced by the Treasury is lent to the Cunard Company on a Debenture stock which is to rank after the existing Mortgage Debenture stock. In the third place, the assets of the Cunard Company, expressed in the substantial Reserve, large Cash holdings and vessels outside the North Atlantic fleet—which have to be transferred to the Merger Company—represent a substantial total, while in addition the revenues of the Cunard Company, quite distinct from those received from the vessels of the North Atlantic route, are a good security against the 5 per cent. Debenture stock. Indeed, of late the Atlantic transport traffic has been worked at a loss, and it is from the future earnings when trade revives and the two new ships are in action, that profits have to be hoped for, and in that matter the Cunard Company will receive 62 per cent. of the share capital of the new Merger Company which will be concerned with the earnings of the North Atlantic fleet.
A. W. K.
Previous page
