Expenditure' Decreased: While Income Rises: Year 1933 Proves Successful The annual meeting of stockholders of the American Asiatic Underwriters, was. held last Wednesday at 4.00 pum. at the com~ pany's office at 17 The Bund. Stockholders representing 56,868 shares, were present or represented.
'Mr. 'C. V. Start, President of the company, presided and presented the following report 'Our company has two separate sources of income which, with your consent, I shall review' separately. The older department is the insurance General Agency. The newer, which has grown from investment of profits and new capital, is the Investment, Department.
'Our insurance agency work after decade of increasing profs, showed fa loss from operations for the first ime' in 1932, 'The cause was a gen-feral reduction In premium income over our whole territory and partly ularly' in. Manchuria, Indo-China, and Malaya, In, 1933," for the first time in our work in the Orient, we were faced with the necessity to retrench, The extent to which this was done is indicated by the fact that our expenses in 1932 were $949.- 868.04 and in. 1939, $767,003.55, a reduction of $182,770.39, We succeeded effecting this economy while tually. increasing our income from Insurance, which was $848,694.74 in 1032, and' $683,280.84 in 1933. The that, charging all of the company's expenses to insurance agency operations, the 1932 loss of {$101,329.20 was changed to a groat of $116,196.20 in 1933.
We have discontinued branch offices and have placed general agen cles in their stead in Java, Singapore, anal, Mukden, and Harbin, "In Manila, a subsidiary company, of which we own 75 per cent,, has been formed to represent us and our insurance companies in the Philipines, "In our head once we are making increasing use of thi nese associates in positions of responsibility with highly satisfactory re-Suits, Further extension of this poll "ithe underwriting results for the insurance companies which we present did not. suffer by" these Changes during 1088, 'Their loss Fallen were tower than for sever] Were more then in' any" previous are past and, our profit comm *eithe volume of premiums written car.
during 1998, was, 280 per coot. more {than th 1932," Competitive conditions live severe, however, and falling rates fon both the agency and writing departments.
own as to premiums an figent must write an increasing num ber of polloies exch year. The aificully in the face of a trade depression {fe obvious, And only" by. the. most Vinilant, and "eautfous selection can he underwriter hope to extract front from the meagre rates.
"at ig during such periods as this that effective organization and skill {it selection. shows ite worth, how-ver, and where ay Bellows that the times. may avy. toll oversconfdent or inexperienced inderwelters, we feel that our star?
competent to protect. the. com-Dontes which we represent, "our income from investments as increased a compared with Fast year, partly to earnings thereon. and partly to' reduced interest paid on. Borrowed money.
"Though our investments are diver~ sifted, we are most deeply interested In those enterprises which we control or whose management we influence hrough large holdings. The most important of these are insurance companies, the Asia Life, Compagnie Franco-Amerieaine, and International Assurance.
"Our largest single holding sin shares of the Asia Life Insurance Company, in which we hold 25,000 shares out of 40,000 issued. This company's accounts for 1933 have already been published. They had an exceptionally satisfactory year, earning. 83.75 per cent. on their capital. Deducting non-recurrent items, th profit from normal operations would have been 6867 per cent. The final dividend to shareholders was U.SSI per share, making 35 per cent. for the year, and the dividends to. policyholders were increased. The company is in a strong position, well-managed, and its progress is steady. We were able to increase our holdings slightly during the year.
"The Compagnie Franco-Americaine Assurances, of which we own 50 per cent, and which carries our Indo-China business. reported underwriting profits for 1983 of Fes. 290,313.69. Interest, dividends and rents were Fes, 186,517.15. These were partly offset by depreciation of investments and. exchange amounting to Fes.! 825,365.20. The capital of the company is Fes. 3,500,000, No dividend is, expected.
"he International Assurance Company, Ltd., in which our company has Increased its holdings and is now tne largest shareholder, has just sent out fig accounts for 1993 showing a profit from operations of $378,211.48, In addition, a net gain from adjustment of Investments and exchange, amounting to $87,400.36, was credited directly to reserve. The total gain for the, year was thus approximately 10 per ent. on the capital before appropriations recommended by the Directors, which Included a dividend of $30 per share.
"We are also substantial shareholders in the International Underwriters, General Managers for the International Assurance Company,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.