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A BURNS PHILP CO. WITH LOTS OF MONEY

• The balance sheet of Burns Philp (South Sea ) Ltd. for the year ended January 31 last, is a typical BP document —a huge turnover steadily maintained; impressive and growing reserves; and a dividend kept at the usual 10 per cent.

INCLUDING an issue in 1957 of 250,000 £1 shares, the Co’s subscribed capital now is £1,000,000; and 10 per cent, called for £87,500- Co’s profit 6 St > ’^ m wM t1 £142562.

After adding £50,000 to reserves, ’ the {ft C A a ™ e ,L f ° rWard ° Ver £B °' ooo in F L Account - The Co’s reserves (apart from P/L Account) now total oyer £1,150,000; so the capital provided by the shareholders as at January 31 was no less than £2,338,141.

The Sydney stock market values the shares at around 45/- Australian (all the balance-sheet figures

are in Fiji currency) which gives the share buyer a return of around 4j per cent, u The outstanding feature of this

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» and government bonds, £315,000 in a subsidiary, and £245,000 j n ac tual cash.

While a beautiful picture for in vestors, this actually is not a good thing, from the public point of view. Much more of this capital should be working on enterprises, in countries like Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.

For the first time in the history of Messrs. Burns Philp (South Sea) Co., Ltd., a con ference of all the company's managers was held (in Suva) on April 24, to discuss matters of policy and company interest. Here, members of the conference are sitting down to lunch.

From left to right, they are: Mr. J. Stewart, manager at Ba; Mr. L. R. Pearson (obscured), assistant manager at Suva; Mr. R. Simpson, shipping manager, Suva; Mr. A. E. Wadding ham (obscured), manager at Lautoka; Mr. H. Maurice Scott, chairman of directors; Mr. R.

C. Kerkham, director and secretary of the company; Mr. E. O. Sundin, manager at Levuka; Mr. L. J. Smales, manager at Labasa; Mr. M. Olssen, manager at Taveuni; Mr. M. H. Helsen (back to camera), director and manager at Suva. —Caine's Studio.