High - Yielding Portfolio

I recently had to advise a friend who wanted a small high-income portfolio, and I suggested the following:

Times Price Dividend Covered Yield Illingworth Morris .. 8/3 Gwent and West of England Enterpriies 15/10#* Amalgamated Metal 35/- Anglo-Ceylon and General Estates 24/6t * Cum scrip bonus of one for one. t Cum scrip bonus of three for two.

ILLINGWORTH MORRIS is a leading wool textile company with a large export trade and a domes- tic trade flourishing on rising orders from Montague Burton, etc. The chairman, Lord Wilmot, is very optimistic about the prospects and thinks that the mills will be working 'flat out' this year. GWENT is the Julian. Hodge main hold- ing company with .51 per cent of Anglo Auto and a large investment in L. Ryan Holdings. Its interests are spread over stores, garages, motor hire, etc. Its main subsidiaries are booming. AMALGAMATED METAL is a metal-dealing company whose profits usually jump when metal prices are rising sharply. ANGLO-CEYLON is only 13 per cent tea. The balance is sugar produced in Mauritius and half its,crop is sold in the world market-at present high prices. There is a cyclone risk, but it is largely insurable. The com- pany has doubled its interim and I believe will double its final dividend. A three-for-two scrip issue is proposed. This is speculative, but look at the yield!

14 1.3 50 2.0 11 1.1 80 1.5

WILLENHALL MOTOR RADIATORS, which was recommended on April 5, 1963, at 20s., has risen to 28s. 3d., to yield 4.4 per cent on the divi- dend, which has been increased from 20 per cent to 25 per cent, twice covered. A one-for- one scrip issue is being made and another good year is forecast, but when the shares are ex bonus the holders might begin to think of taking profits when motor shares boom again. PROVI- DENT CLOTHING has put up its final dividend, making 131 per cent against 11 per cent. Its net profits are up by 22 per cent, but the Inland Revenue iS claiming a large amount of tax on the deferred revenues, as it does not accept the com- pany's way of calculating these figures. The com- pany has set up a joint company with VDT to run its voucher-cheque scheme. What gain the com- pany will have out of this joint venture I do not know, but I would be inclined to take profits at the present price of 18s. 9d.

Company Notes

By LOTHBURY

1 N last week's issue we reported an extract 'from the speech at the annual general meet- ing by Lord Aldington, chairman of the National and Grindlays Bank. A point to note is his emphasis on the value to trade of the British overseas banks and the importance of the invisible exports which accrue from them. This was particularly important in 1963 when Britain's visible trade exports reached new records. Profits of £679,318 for 1963 were not quite as high as those for 1962. The dividend was maintained at 14 per cent. The 15s. shares at 32s. 3d. give a high yield of 6.5 per cent, but the shares are a sound investment.

The British Bank of the Middle East, which is controlled by the Hongkorm and Shanghai Banking Corporation, increased its business in 1963 and its profit at £420,296 against £399,794. The dividend is maintained at 16 per cent. The Chairman, Sir Bernard Dallas, points out that the countries in which the bank trades are all in the development stage; many of them owe their rapid expansion to the vast wealth coming from the Middle East oilfields. He reports fully on all the branches within the orgainsation, which stretches from Tunis to Aden and Bombay. •

6.6 6.4 6.2 16.3

IF I were to list here all the names of all the travel agents about whom I have received complaints in the past three years, the Spectator would have to do what Truth was supposed to have done under Labou- chere, fit a special letterbox for writs.

Because Mr. Edward

P Milne returns to battle this week with his Private Member's Bill for the registration of travel agents, and because the Season is approaching .when many and various holidaymakers meet their moments of truth, I take .up the argument where I left off about a month ago. A.; an additional spur, there came the leader in The Times of last Saturday, which suggested that the travellers might be as much to flume as the travel agents. This is what is known as the 'balanced' leader. I especially enjoyed the superbly mixed metaphor with which it wound up.

'Helping people to go abroad is a mushroom trade. It will find its own level. The danger is that a law to govern its teething troubles might quickly outlive justification. . . .' Mushrooms that can find their own level, even without teeth, may be worth cultivating, but what this mush- rooming business (£600 million a year at least) needs badly is a disciplinary body with teeth. The two associations to which the majority of agents belong are the Association of British Travel Agents and the Travel Trade Association. Why two? &cause ABTA insist on their members providing a 'comprehensive' service, meaning that, in order to qualify, they may have to sell railway tickets at

Consuming Interest

Blank Holidays

By LESLIE ADRIAN