Financial Notes AT the recent annual meeting of Bovis Ltd.,

the Chairman, Mr. Vincent Gluckstein. showed that the profits of the previou- year had been steadily maintained, while as regards the- balance-sheet the Chairman stated that it was proposed t,. appropriate £24,500 from the General Reserve, and apply it in reduction of the amount at which the freehold and leasehold BOTIS LIMITED.

(Continued on page 960.)

Fbiandal Notes

(Contiaaarfr'enn page 958.) property stands in the balance-sheet. During recent years the activities of the Company have extended over the whole of England, Scotland and Wales, and the Chairman announced that the Company was now making an experiment in the Near East. Resolutions were approved for amending the Articles of the Company and increasing its capital to £400,000 by the creation of 400,000 5 per cent. Redeemable Preference Shares of 5s. each, while a further Resolution was passed for capitalising £17,500 of the undivided profits standing to the credit of the General Reserve, such sum to be appro- priated in payment in full at par for 70,000 Redeemable Preference Shares to be issued to the Ordinary shareholders in the proportioa of one share for every 50 shares now held.

LIFE BONUSES.

In the course of his address to shareholders at the recent meeting of the Alliance Assurance Company, Mr. Lionel de Rothschild, the Chairman, referred to the revision of the Company's Life assurance premium rates in view of the changes in interest rates and mortality, ajevision; he said, which was probably responsible for some retarding. of the ex- pansion in the Companfsnew Life business.. Mr.de Rothschild pointed out that interest is a more important factor in these days, when so large a proportion of Life insurance was_effeeted on the Endowment plan, maturing at comparatively early ages, and he said if the fall in interest rate's 'persisted, profits must diminish. He considered, however, that as far as the Alliance was concerned they could be moderatelyoptimistic, for a very large balance of unappropriated surplus was carried forward after the last valuation, and in view of the results of the past two years, the Board were confident that unless some serious financial disturbance occurred, a satisfactory bonus would be declared when the results of the 1938 valuation were announced.

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MATCH COMPETITION.

At the recent annual meeting of the. British Match Corpora- tion, the Chairman,' Mr. Clarence Rartholomew, drew the attention of those present to the dumping which had taken place of large quantities of matches on the British market from Soviet Russia at prices which, he said, were often less than half the bare cost of raw materials, and the boxes were merely ;marked ," Foreign.. Made." . This, the Chairman eonsidered. was a development which could not have been foreseen when the Trade , Agreement between the U.K. and Soviet Russia .was negotiated. The Chairman went on to say that the volume of busines 3 in the best classes of matches in the Home market had been well maintained.

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RESERVES SECURITIES TRUST.

The latest Annual Reportof Reserves Securities Trust for the year ended April 5th last showS-that the net revenue, after providing for expenses and tax -amounted to £11,401 against £7,855 for the previous-year. The Directors are transferring £500 to capital reserve'and a dividend is recommended on the share capital of 4} per cent. and a Bonus of / per cent. less :tax, of which an interim dividend of per cent. was paid in .November last. A year ago the interim dividend was 1/ per cent. and the final 2i, while there was no bonus. Moreover. the Directors state that, apart from revenue, a net surplus of 19,102 has been obtained on Capital Account from changes of investments. This has been applied to writing down costs of investments. The present market Table of investments exceeds the book value without taking into account - undis- tributed profits. If undistributed profits are taken into account there is an appreciation for the year of 4.4 per cent. against a depreciation for the previous year of 13.3 per cent. * * *

LONDON AND MANCHESTER ASSURANCE.

The address delivered to shareholders at the recent Annual Meeting of the London and Manchester Assurance Co. by the Chairman, Mr. Walter H. Brown, was exceptionally interesting, for, in addition to dealing with the affairs of his own Company. he made. some important observations with regard to the general position of insurance in the country. So far as the LonclOn and Manchester -.Assurance .CO. is concerned, Mr. Brown has every reason to be satisfied with the results for the past year. The total premium income has shown an increase of £184,000 over the previous year, whilst the income from all sources amounted to nearly £4,000,000. Indeed, in the Ordinary Branch, the new assurances reached the record figure of 14,690,312. The Company has also recently declared the good reversionary Bonus of £2 4s. per cent. on the sum- assured, this being the eighth -successive year that that distri- (Continued on rage 962.)

Financial Notes

(('ontinued from page %O.)

bution has been made. Other branches of the business also did well during the year.

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ARE WE UNDER-INSURED ?

Nevertheless, the Chairman of the London and Manchester Assurance Company expressed the opinion that, notwith- standing the considerable increase in Life Assurance business during recent years and the growth of industrial assurance.. the people of this country are still seriously under-insured.

In most families," said Mr. Brown. " the breadwinner is not making' nearly sufficient provision for those dependent on him in the event of his death. How seriously the community is under-insured is revealed in the official returns for Estate Duty. These show that of the adults who die in this country every year, eight out of every nine leave less than £1,000, which would provide an income of only some £30 per annum ; seven out of time leave less than L'300. and two out of every three adults who die actually leave only £100. When," said Mr. Brown, " only one person out of three leaves his dependants with £104) or more it is misleading to talk of the increase in Life Assurance business unless at the same time we emphasise the fact that the people of this country have scarcely begun to realise the part which should be played by insurance in providing, particularly for the family, a real measure of security against the risk of death."

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ITAmmtos

Although prevented by indisposition from presiding at last week's meeting of Hambros Bank, Mr. R. Olaf Hambro had prepared his speech, which was read by Mr. G. L. d'Abo, one of the Managing Directors. As usual, Mr. Hambro made some comments upon the general European outlook, expressing the view that there was a decided trend towards improvement in the economic conditions throughout Europe during the year in spite of what he described as " the almost frenzied biekerings among political parties in all countries." Referring to the practical cessation of commercial relations between this country and Italy, Mr. Hambro expressed the hope that this was only a passing phase and that in due course friendly relations between business men in the two countries, which have existed for over a century, might be resumed. Com- menting upon the fact that cheapness of money had tended to increase productive capacities at home, Mr. hambro said that the same factor had been instrumental in producing an improvement in the Scandinavian countries and Finland.

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MID-EUROPEAN CORPORATION.

When presiding at the recent annual meeting of the Mid- European Corporation, the Chairman, Mr. Norman Holden, brought out one or two points of special interest with regard to the Company's investment holdings. A year ago the CoMpliny's percentage of investments in Germany and other European countries was 24.8 and 23 per cent. respectively, but today the percentage has been reduced to 18.94 and 19.18. Moreover, the book value has been reduced in the case of Germany from £967,000 to t-170,000 and for the rest of Europe from £789,000. to £476,090. Mr. Holden also stated that as against a total depreciation in June of 1932 of £1.050,000, the total today both for the parent Company and the Subsidiary, including the capital loss, was only £464,000. He added that the:Corporation would continue to seek means of overcoming the difficulties which faced any investment company attempting to operate on an inter- national scale, though he was careful to add that the inevitable price of greater security was a reduction of income. A. w. K.