Papua's "Steamies"

Withdrawal: Take Over Offer For Papua's "Steamies"

There were sharp movements in the Australian stock exchange late in March when it was re ported in all the leading news

papers that Steamships Trading

Co. Ltd.—which shares much of

the top-rank merchandising with

the Burns Philp organisation in Papua—had received an interest ing “take over” offer.

STC directors admitted an offer had been received, and rumours echoed daily along Pitt and Collins Streets, and investors followed the trail into the Stock Exchanges. STC ordinary £1 shares, which had been at around 40/- for months, suddenly leaped to 60/-, on March 29.

Market students noted that Car penter Holdings 5/- shares, which had been at around 30/- since October last, had moved sharply to 33/-. The deduction was natural.

Carpenter directors, who are famed for silence, expressed astonishment at the rumours; but the market scouts reported that Mr. B. B. Perriman, a senior Carpenter director, was visit ing Port Moresby at the end of March, and Carpenter quotations moved up another point or two.

As April dawned, the Exchanges were waiting. If a “takeover” offer was seriously made and received, it obviously would have to go to the shareholders. But on April 2, it was reported that the bid had been “with drawn”. Then it was confirmed that Carpenters made the bid, offering equivalent of 58/- a £1 share.

“Steamies” have an issued capital of £1,226,316, in 50,000 £1 7 per cent. Preferences, and 1,176,316 £1 Ordinaries. The shares are widely spread. .

The shares of the companies named have been quoted as follows, on Australian Exchanges;

Steamships Trading Cos, Ltd. was founded very modestly soon after World War 1 by Captain A. S. Fitch, a former Hooghli River pilot, who

Steamships Carpenter (£1 shares) Holdings (5/- units) March, 1961 47/- 30/mid-March, ’62 40/- 31/- March 30, ’62 . 57/- 33/- April 2, *62 .. 50/- 32/-

took the steamer Queenscliff trading on the Papuan coast. “Cappy”

Fitch had a hard battle; but he pre sently set up coastal trading posts, and a store in Port Moresby, and be came interested in rubber-growing.

“Cappy” retired after bringing his company through World War II and seeing that it got its full share of Australia’s War Damage Compensa tion Fund and was living in Spain a few weeks ago. Hard-working E.

V. Crisp took over, then, as chair man and managing director, and he retired last October, when he was sure that “Steamies” had benefited worthily from the post-war boom.

The little empire that Crisp handed over to the incoming chairman and managing director, H, D. Underwood, comprises freeholds and leaseholds, a huge department store in Port Moresby, stores in most Papuan centres, rubber and copra planta tions, ships, a slipway and workshops, and huge transportation equipment.

The shareholders’ funds last June 30 (subscribed capital, plus £1,250,000 of reserves and £282,115 of unappropriated profit) totalled £2,758,431, represented mostly by land, buildings, merchandise and similar assets, which grow in value as the inflationary spiral whirls up ward.

On the face of it, a most desirable property, from the viewpoint of “takeover”. There is of course a political nigger in the Papuan wood

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pile—namely, a newspaper - built bogeyman, dressed like an Indonesian, hanging around the frontiers of West New Guinea.

The Carpenter organisation, created by the late Sir Walter Carpenter after World War I, and expanded tre mendously by his sons, R. B. and C. H., after World War 11, has re tailed and wholesaled, planted and manufactured and transported over most of the South-West Pacific —except Papua. There is some Carpenter activity in Papua, but it is modest and restricted. No one outside the boardrooms knows why the WRC brand is conspicuous by its absence in Papua: The man on the beach usually supposes that there was some sort of agreement between gentle men.

Carpenters’ last big Islands take over was six years ago, when Fiji]s biggest Kai Viti concern, Morris Hedstrom Ltd. joined up with the ever-thrusting Australians. It has worked out very well for all con cerned. The two big departmentalised

Stpfes-=Moffis Hedstrom and Car penter—compete vigorously against each other in Fiji’s retail markets; but the union has spelled mutual benefits in the spheres of insurance, discounts, marketing, brokerage, shipping and various “overheads”.

W. R. Carpenter Holdings Ltd., on September 30 last, had an issued capital of £2,806,684; a reserve of £82,758; and unappropriated profits of £1,409,756. A consolidated balance-sheet covering subsidiaries showed shareholders’ funds at £13,902,097 and assets of £18,345,250 (including nearly £2,000,000 in cash).