COMPANY MEETING
KEPONG (MALAY) RUBBER ESTATES THE thirty-third annual general meeting of the Kepong (Malay) Rubber Estates Limited was held on May 18th in London.
Sir Francis Voules, C.B.E. (Chairman and Managing Director) said that the result of the past year's working was a profit of £123,311 compared with £131,011 for 1936, an increase of £42,299. They recommended a final dividend of 74 per cent., making 131 per cent. for the year as against 11 per cent. in 1936. That profit had been earned upon a capital increased by £59,300 to £743,557 during 1937. As regarded the future, they had received assessments for 1938 totalling 11,907, 486 lbs. It was not possible to say what their exportable crop would be as it was governed by the export quotas announced from time to time. Those had so far been fixed at 70 per cent. for the first quarter and 6o per cent. for the quarter to June 3oth.
Since the last meeting the statistical position bad undergone a progressive and unforeseen deterioration, the severity of which had exceeded all preconceived ideas as to the probable range of price movement under a regulation scheme which appeared to be working smoothly and effectively. _ The declining tendency in consumption had not been noticeable until July last year, when the U.S.A. monthly absorption fell below 50,000 tons for the first time since 1936. The present unsatisfactory price of rubber had been brought about mainly by the decline in American consumption.
He was convinced that the present depression was only a passing phase and he did not doubt that whenever trade conditions improved in America, which was still the largest consumer of rubbtr, they would again see a reasonable measure of prosperity, especially for a great company like Kepong, built up, as it had been, on sound lines.
The report was unanimously adopted.
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