The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-08 00:00:00

LONDON AND COUNTY BANK.

The annual general meeting of the proprietors of
this company was held yesterday, at the London
Tavern—Mr. Hugh C. E. Childers, M.P., in the
chair.

The report for the half-year ending December
31st last stated that, after paying all charges and
interest to customers, and making ample provision
for bad and doubtful debts, the net profits amount
to £101,998 15s. This, added to £17,468 16s. Gd.,
brought forward from the last account, produces a
total of £119,467 lls. Gd. The directors recom-
mended the payment of the usual dividend of 6 per
cent., together with a bonus of 8 per cent. for the
half-year, both free of income tax, which absorbed
£105,000, and leaves £14,407 lls. 6d. to be carried
forward to profit and loss new account. The divi-
dend for the whole year 1866 will thus be 25 per
cent. A t the meeting in February, 1866, it was
intimated to the proprietors that thc directors pro-
posed to increase the capital of the bank, and at
the meeting in August, 1866, the proprietors, by a
resolution, adopted the recommendation of the
directors. It will be proposed to act upon this re-
solution (which will require formal confirmation)
by the :issue of 12,500 new shares, to be offered
pro rata amongst the proprietors as they appeared
on the register on the 4th inst., the date when the
tramfer books of the company were closed, such
shares to be issued at the price of £4O each, being a
premium of £2O per share. The total number of
shares will then be 50,000.

The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the re-
port, said that there were two matters upon which
he would have to address the proprietors, the first
of which was with respect to the business of the
year, and more especially to that of the past six
months; and the second, the augmentation of the
capital. In August last his colleague, who was then
in the chair, congratulated the meeting upon the
state of the bank and upon the manner in which it
had gone through the crisis, and he thought now, at
the completion of the year, they had equal reason
for congratulation, for the bank never stood in a
better position than it did at the present time.
(Hear, hear.) Their success was mainly owing to
the good management of those who administered
their affairs under the board, and the steadiness with
which the shareholders had uniformly supported the
bank and maintained its position. (Hear, hear.)
Hardly any of the shares were sold during the crisis
by those who had been shareholders for a consider-
able time, which was an evidence of the high opinion
they had of the concern. He thought those who
attempted to injure the bank in the first half of the
last year might well regret the attack they had made
upon an institution so ably and well supported.
(Hear, hear.) With regard to the accounts, he
would first refer to the debtor side. The amount
due by the bank for customers' balances, &c., was
£12,057,000 12s. Bd., against £11,843,000 in the
previous year ; therefore, in spite of the financial
crisis, the balances stood higher last year than they
had ever stood since the establishment of the bank.
With respect to the liability on acceptances he had
not much to say, for that item varied from time to
time according to circumstances. It now stood at a
million and a half, and he believed that they had
never lost a shilling by their acceptances. On going
to the other side of the accounts they would see that
the cash andsecurities amounted to about £3,200,000
against £3,900,000 in the previous year. If that
£3,900,000 enabled the bank to meet the crisis in
May last, the £3,200,000 would be ample when the
bank rate of discount was at 3} or 3 per cent. With
respect to the Government stock, that item did not
stand quite so high as it did last year. The amount
had been on the increase since the date of the ac-
counts, and that was a policy which the directors in-
tended to follow up. With respect to their premises,
they would see they were set down as being of the value
of £176,313, which was an increase of between
£30,000 and £40,000 since last year. He had no
hesitation in saying that in the event of a sale they
would find the premises very much undervalued,
and that account, therefore, stood in a very satis-
factory condition. He came now to the item of pro-
fit and loss. They would see that the gross profits
for the half-year, after making provision for bad
and doubtful debts, amounted to £319,957, which
was not quite so much as had been shown in other
similar periods. He thought that on one occasion it
had amounted to as much as £340,000, but when
they considered that under theadverse circumstances
of the past year they had been enabled to pay a
dividend of 25 per cent., they must be satisfied with
the amount of profit the bank had made. It was
always the duty of directors to carefully scrutinise
every account, and see that ample provision was
made for possible contingencies, and in such a year
as the last that duty existed in a marked degree.
The directors had taken care that the amount set
aside for bad and doubtful debts should be ample ;
therefore the £319,957 might be looked upon as the
amount of profit ascertained after a careful scrutiny
of that kind. They would observe that the salaries
and all other expenses attheheadoffice and branches,
including income tax, were set down at £99,813,
which amount was somewhat in excess of that of
last year, but that excess was occasioned by a care-
ful and practical revision of the salaries of their offi-
cers, which he was sure the proprietors would not
regret. There was one item towhich he thwdrilit the
attention of the proprietors and of h-
,41144 generally

ought to be directed, and that was the expense to
the bank occasioned by the light coin which passed
through their hands. He foundthat during the past
three half-years there had been a great increase in
that item. In the second half of the year 1865 the
loss from light coin passing through the bank was
only £l,lOO. In the first half of 1866 it amounted
to £2,300, and in the second half of 1866 it was no
less than £4,300. These figures might appear very
large, but he was bound to state the business which
they represented was also very large, for no
less than £84,630,000 in coin passed through
the head office in Lombard-street during the half-
year. lle believed that that was a business almost
unprecedented, and might account to some extent
for the large loss by light coin. But the amount of
loss was steadily increasing, and it was a matter de-
serving of their attention, and one which ought to
be brought before the Government of the country.
There was a large increase iu the number of their
accounts. This time last year the total number was
47,585 ; in June they stood at 48,634, and at Christ-
mas last they amounted to 50,389, showing an in-
crease in the number of accounts in the year of
2,804, which was a good evidence of the progress the
bank was making, both at headquarters and at the
branches. With regard to the proposed increase of
capital, that matter had already been under their
notice, and the proprietors at the meeting 6 months
ago had approved of the scheme. The necessity for
that additional capital had been occasioned by the
increasing business, and when raised it would no
doubt tend still further to increase it, as well as the
number of shareholders, which would be greatly to
the interest of the bank. There were at the present
time 37,500 shares in the company, upon which £2O
had been paid, and it was now proposed to add to
that 12,500, making in all 50,000 shares, or a paid-
up capital of £1,000,000, by issuing the shares in
the proportion of one new share for every three ex-
isting shares. The new shares would be issued at
£4O, half of which would be carried to share capital
and the other half to revenue, which would raise the
capital to £1,000,000 and the reserve to £560,000.
When the new shares were issued on the last occa-
casion they were issued at £4O, which amount was
called up in four payments of £lO each at intervals
of four months. On this occasion it was proposed
that there should be five payments of £8 each, at
intervals of six months instead of four months, so
that the amount would be distributed over two
years. The first payment would fall due on the
30th March next ; the second on the 30th August ;
the third in February, 1868 ; the fourth in August,
1868 ; and the fifth in February, 1869. This
would enable the shareholders to have five half-
years' dividend, out of which they could pay up
the capital, the dates having been arranged so that
the instalments would fall due just after the payment
of the dividends. Of each £B, £4 would carry
dividend and bonus from the date of payment, and
every shareholder would have the privilege of paying
up the full amount, which would also be entitled to
dividend from the date of payment.
Mr. W. C. JONES seconded the motion.
In reply to Colonel Spong,
The CHAIRMAN said that the amount in govern-
ment securities was £695,953.

The report was adopted, and a dividend in ac-
cordance with the recommendations contained
therein was declared.
The retiring auditors, Messrs. W. Norman and R.
Ssvaine, were re-elected ; and Mr. Frederick
Francis was elected an auditor, to fill the vacancy
occasioned by the disqualification of Mr. Robert
Escembe.

The proceedings were then brought to a close
with a vote of thanks to the chairman, directors,
auditors, and officers.