THE LONDON ASSURANCE
CONTINUED PROGRESS
THE annual general Court of the London Assurance was held on April 26th in London.
Mr. R. Olaf Hambro (the Governor) said that the Life Depart- ment had had a break in its long continued yearly records in the figure of total sums assured dunng 1938, entirely associated with the abnormalities of the period. For all that the Department had an excellent record to show. The fund had made a very sub- stantial move forward, the figure at the close of the account being £10,605,502, as compared with £9,985,741 at the close of the previous year. The Fire and Accident Departments showed ex- cellent progressive development. Taking th2 two departments combined, the increase in premium income amounted to £217,820, the Fire Department contributing £121,803 and the Accident De- partment £96,017. Their accident premium income, for the first time in their history, exceeded a million and a half pounds, which marked a definite forward movement.
In the Marine section they showed a premium income of £819,876, an increase over that of the previous year of £45,026.
That increase was brought about in the main by two factors—the improvement in hull rates and a certain volume of war risk premium. They had transferred to profit and loss account £50,000, which left the Marine. fund at £994,357, representing 121.3 per cent, of the last year's premium income, compared with a percentage of 115.1 in the previous year. This would appear to be, as far as the " London ' was concerned at any rate, a very satisfactory outcome, but despite that he felt it necessary to say that it was their considered opinion that hull premiums were still below an economic level. The profit and loss account contained nothing other than that with which members would have reason for satisfaction. The total of the account was £1,232,733 and the balance to be carried forward, which was, in effect, an unallo-
cated reserve fund, in addition to their general reserve fund of £3,000,000, amouned to £801,038, which was an. increase of
£124,648. In regard to dividends paid to shareholders, both preference and ordinary, the total amount paid fell below the figure of dividends and interest earned, plus the annual contri- bution of a percentage of the profits accorded to the shareholders consequent upon their Life Department's operations. The total assets of the Corporation now stood at £20,984,572 and their total premium income for the year was £5,329,697.
The report was unanimously adopted and a final dividend of 5s. tod. per share to the ordinary members was approved.
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