The report recently issued of Electric and Musical Industries Limited
is of a character which must .be occasioning Con- siderable anxiety to the shareholders, and it lends additional interest and importance to the forthcoming meeting on November 10th, when, no doubt, the Chairman will give more detailed explanation of conditions than is furnished in the report itself. For in this combination there is a vast amount of capital invested, the Ordinary share capital amount- ing to nearly 16,000,000, while, including the 6 per cent. Redeemable Preference shares, the total issued capital is nearly /6,266,000. The present undertaking-is the outcome of the combination last year of the Gramophone-Company and the Columbia Gramophone Company, and up to that time profits had been on a very large scale, the companies in the year previous to the fusion having earned net profits of over /1,400,000. The latest report of the combined concern, now known as Electric and Musical Industries, shows however that after allowing for normal depreciation, costs of re- organization of factories, abnormal depreciation of stocks and losses due to exchange, there was' a loss of 1741,000. Before the amalgamation both companies had laid stress upon the large amounts allowed for depreciation allowances, but evidently in view of subsequent developments they have been found to be insufficient.
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