Trust Ca.
The second annual general meeting of the International Investment Trust Ca. of China, Ltd, was held jon May 20 in the' board room of Messrs. E. D. Sassoon & Ca., It rman), Messrs. C.
Benjamin, Ellis Hayim, Hsu Sing-loh, Li Shing, P. W. Massey, V. toyer, H. B, Saatoon, A. Spelman, Swan, 7. G, Weall (directors), McLure (general manager), and number" of shareholders, repre-Senting in all 126816 shares, The Chairman so Having. regard to. all_circum stances, the results achieved can be regarded, 1 think, as. satiatactory.
September last the market value the investments held by your company. was very, nearly 1,000,000 in' excess of book values. [There was a slight. decrease "con: sequent upon the worldwide finan ial dislocation caused by Great Bri-{tain and other countries relingui ug the Gold Standard, but the po tion of your company, statistically,
{eagie developments {n Shanghai in sil exceptionally' strong, "The the early months of this year, how-lever, had a serious effect upon local business, and, naturally, pathetic' effect upon quotations. in The focal share market, "At the end lof the financial year, the statistical value of the Tia, 10. shares of the Company was Tls. 824, after deducting the proposed dividend of Ts. 040 per share, representing a only—of The. 1.76 per share. logs of, capital—happily on paper
ince peace has been restored, the statistical figure has. steadily' improved, and, to-day, it is Tls. 9.22, The original capital subscribed is, therefor, company has built up during the {two years of its existence, Tt may, asked what will an Invest-could without dislocation of the share-market, and a substai prices.
Therefore, the statistical value of Trust Company's investments, taken as a whole, is not necessarily ithe replacement value, because Jeompany formed to-day to acquire {the quantity and diversity of inves ments, such as your Company holds, [could not possibly do so at current prices. Providing the companies in ind Which a Trust has its funds invest-Jed have thei ts intact, and their earning power is not too seriously affected by adverse condition: too much importance need not be attached to the statistical value of its share capital as measured. market quotations of securities held, Jalthough, of course, it is always comforting to feel that the position jon paper' with regard to capital value is as encouraging as the actual results achieved in the way of revenue earned, The important factor to an Investment, Trust is, of Jcourse, revenue, and, in that respect, shareholders in your company, considering all that has happened, have little to regret.
As you will have noted from the Report, the actual revenue earned has been sufficient to provide for all expenses, and leave sufficient. sur-Plas to pay. the dividend of 6 per Jeent. which is recommended, 'There remains a fairly substantial amount to be carried forward to next year' accounts. In addition, out of profits made on sales of' investments, possible to. transfer to reserve 250,000, which, if the propose allocation is approved, will make a total reserve of Tls. 360,000, 1 may ind you, also, that all under-
Jexpenses were written off out of the commission and preliminary Profits on our first year's working.
Compared with Investment Trusts ju England and America, both the old established ones and those form-jed in recent years, your company very strong position, I ws reading in an English financial Paper, published in March last, some comments on Investment Trusts and [depreciation, and it was interesting note that, of 108 leading com-Panis, 51 hid temporarily Test the presented by see cent. and 100 per Cig saves wag the. capital fully cove oper value of the investments ela.
In a recent issue of the "London [Stock Exchange Ggzette," it was stated, with reference to results of 58 Trust Companies, whose balance sheets had been" issued since January 1 of this year, that in 14 eases was an appreciation of assets Jas compared with cost, and in 44 Jompanies there was a depreciation Jas compared with cost after includ. ing all reserves, beld. "OF the 38 prohibited without permission.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.