FINANCIAL NOTES
KING LINE PROGRESS
KING LINE is one of those tramp steamship companies which have done surprisingly well in the difficult conditions of 1938. not only repeating the 8 per cent, dividend, but also distribut- ing a special 5 per cent, jubilee bonus. It was natural that at the meeting last week Sir F. Vernon Thomson should have had to explain that the profits of 1938 were largely an overflow from the more favourable conditions of 1937, and that there has been a progressive deterioration during 1938, so that whereas the freights of the first quarter of that year had (Continued on page 740)
FINANCIAL NOTES
(Continued from page 738) been remunerative, the company had had four ships laid up at the end of the year.
In the absence of a revival in world trade, Sir Vernon does not find the shipping outlook bright, but it should not be thought that he takes an altogether gloomy view of the King Line's prospects. Arrears of depreciation have been cleared off ; quite recently there has been a better tone, and a broadening of demand in freight markets and the company's ships, even such of them as are laid up, are well found. He also lays considerable store by the Government's plans for a renewed shipping subsidy, and for shipbuilding assistance, and announced that the directors had been considering the acquisi- tion of new tonnage, but had hitherto not felt justified in contracting at current prices.
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