RAND MINES STRENGTH For the investor who likes to spread
his risks in the gold- mining market I can think of no better purchase than the 5s. shares of Rand Mines, the Johannesburg partner of the Central Mining and Investment Company. At 165s. the yield on the shares is only La per cent. on the basis of the 16o per cent. rate of dividend which has been in force since 1936, but this modest return is a testimony to the strength of this old-established finance house. Over 84 per cent. of Rand Mines' portfolio is in gold-mining interests, of which the largest is the holding in Crown Mines, and of these interests nearly 90 per cent. had produced dividends. Again, at the end of 1937, there was a big hidden reserve in that the market- value of the portfolio substantially exceeded the book figure of £4,347,570.
In my view, however, the chief attraction of Rand Mines shares just now, which puts them in a different category from those of most other Kaffir finance houses, is that, according to its established practice, the company does not utilise for dividend purposes any of the profits accruing from realisations of investment. At the annual meeting in Johannesburg the deputy-chairman, who presided in the unavoidable absence of Mr. John Martin, rightly emphasised this aspect of the com- pany's finance which renders profits far less susceptible than those of other mining finance houses to conditions in the share- markets. He also reminded shareholders that Rand Mines was substantially interested in various good mining com- panies which had not yet reached the milling stage. Among these developing interests the holding of 281,280 shares in Blyvooruitzicht is believed to have considerable potentialities.
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