Lancashire has launched a scheme to apply the building society system of property purchase to factory prem-isos, Financed by the British Government, banks, insurance companies, and the London, Midland & Scottish Pailwav Ca. the Lancashire Industrial Sites Ca, Ltd, has been formed to operate the scheme. It is the first enterprise of its kind to be established under recent legislation and has an initial capital of more than a quarter million pounds, states "Industrial Britain."
The company's aims and proposals were described to a meeting of Lancashire's industrial and municipal! leaders by Sir Thomas Barlow, Chairman of the Lancashire Industrial Development Council "The purpose of the new company" he said "is to buy and recondition existing factories and to buy land and build factories thereon to meet the requirements of prospective tenants in a number of districts in the Lancashire area which will be approved for the purpose." The advantages to potential industrialists are that they can obtain factories adapted or built to their requirements, either by outright or spread-over purchase, or by rental, thus avoiding personal expenditure on land and buildings when establishing a new industrial enterprise. The Sites Ca., although it will not provide liquid capital, can, under certain conditions, sanction' applications by tenants of its properties for development loans from other funds.
The management and control of the Sites Ca. will be the same as that of the Lancashire Industrial Development Council which has attracted many new industries to Lancashire within the last six years. The six directors will include one nominated by the Government, which has provided 25 per cent. of the capital.
Enquiries from interested industrialists are already being dealt with.
Berlin, Apr 11.
The usual monthly—which this time was likewise the quarterly—settlement passed off without the least difficulty but this was only possible because the Reichsbank gave a very considerable accomodation, amounting in all to about 960,- 000,000 Reichsmarks. The money market has been showing great caus tion owing to the present general policy of keeping resources liquid in order to be able to meet all emergencies that might arise.
On the fixed interest securities market the usual quarterly investment activity that follows the receipt on interest payments on bonds and other investments was on this occasion small, This is chiefly explained by the fact that investors held back because they are desirous of subscribing to the new 4% per cent. Reichs consolidation loan announced last week, Comparatively large transactions took place however in industria] bonds, chiefly because these are now mostly at or near parity and offer investors similar attractions to gold mortgage bonds which are extremely scarce.
On the share market, business was much livelier, largely because the scarcity of gold mortgage bonds causes many investors who prefer fixed interest securities to look for alternatives which they seem to recognize in good standard shares.
Moreover many recent balance sheets show increased dividends for 1937. Besides this, the incorporation of Austria in the Reich has so far consolidated the economic conditions That the prospects of the leading companies have thereby greatly improved.
The following were the quotations of some of the leading German shares on April 4 and 9 respectively:
Reichsbank German Dye Trust Salzdetfurin Pata: one Investment Bankefts and Brokers in Securities and Commodities Daily New York and London Stock Exchange Service Commodity Futures on the principal American markets Members of New Yerk Cotton Exchange Chicago Board of Trade Winnipeg Grain Exchange
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.