RUBBER PROFITS.
Although the somewhat unexpected heavy decline during recent months in the price of rubber has effectually checked the boom in shares of rubber producing companies, it cannot be said that there has been any pressure to sell. Nor, having regard to the scale of the dividends which are now being announced, is this surprising, for they show that even with rubber under the level of present prices it is possible to make considerable profits. This, indeed, is well demonstrated in the case of the Highlands and Lowlands Company, the annual Report showing that for 1925 there was a profit of £126,000, based on an average net sale price of only 2s. 07/32d. per lb. on an output of 1,335,500 lbs. The company is paying a dividend of 374 per cent. against 10 per cent. for the previous year, and as there is a standard production for the current year of over 2,000,000 lbs., the prospects are good. Not only so, but according to present views of experts, there is still every likelihood—even if the price should go lower first—of the price of rubber itself rising later on in view of anticipated scarcity some eighteen months hence.
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