Company Notes
By LOTHBURY
A BEITER dividend than was expected comes
from Lombard Banking at 171 per cent for 1963, with a 50 per cent rise in gross profits and the net balance after tax well up at £637,000 against £184,000. The 5s. ordinary shares are yielding as much as 6.3 per cent against the average of 4.9 per cent for the h.p. industry. The market appears to take the view that with a higher Bank rate, prolits for the current year will be lower, but the chairman and his co- directors think differently. They consider that with all subsidiaries at home and overseas now working at a profit 1964 will be a good year. Lombard is highly geared with bank borrowings and deposits at £85 million. It not only finances the purchase of motor-cars but also domestic appliances through its subsidiaries Awley Finance in Manchester and Trinity Finance in partner- ship with Thorn Electrical. The shares now have a forward look about them.
During 1963 the Eastbourne Mutual Building. Society increased its investments from investors and depositors by £2. million, from which £1.4 million was repaid in principal, and ad- vanced by way of mortgages £1.4. million. The total assets of the Society now exceed £10 million.
The Co-operative Permanent Building Society has during 1963 rendered a great service to the property-owning community in assisting no fewer than 26,000 families to own their own homes in advancing them £60 million as mortgage loans. This is the Society's eightieth anniversary and the directors recall that assets which forty years ago amounted to £11 million have now grown to £31 million.
A very satisfactory net profit of £84,000, after tax, for the year ended September 30, 1963, is reported by City and Country Properties, which did not acquire any additional incoming-bearing properties during the year. Sites for future development were purchased by the subsidiary, W. A. Hills and Sons. The dividend, with a final payment of 11 per cent, goes up by 1 per cent to a total of 21 per cent. An important point made by the chairman, Mr. J. M. Tilling, is that the whole of the Middlesex Street (Petticoat Lane) site is now being developed, and this block of offices, shops, flats, garages and warehouses is due for completion by about June, 1965. Look- ing ahead, the 2s. ordinary shares at 5s. 9d. yielding 7 per cent could turn out to be an attractive purchase.
A jump of £112,000 in profits from Musical and Plastic Industries for 1963 is reported with a good rise of 81 per cent in the dividend. This makes a total of 20 per cent, as the final payment of 15 per cent is made on capital doubled by a scrip issue. The chairman advises that the results do not include any profits from contracts made with the Beatles, which will be reflected in the next accounts. The net profit, after tax, of £138,000 compares with £84,000. As the turn- over for the first three months of the current financial year is substantially up on last year, the outlook is promising. The Is. ordinary shares at 5s. 9d. are now on a low yield basis, perhaps too low for this type of company, but with substan- tial earnings and cover there is plenty of room for a higher dividend.
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