The Portland daily press., 1886-12-16
sIDDEFoRD MILLS.
The Proposed Pepperell- Laconla
0eal-Mayor Bowers OF Saco Fight
Ing it-what He Says About 1T
Two Money Making Corporations.

The greatest business deal that has been
proposed In Maine for a long time. says the
Lewiston Journal, Is the contemplated con
solidation Of the Peppcrrell and LacOnla
corporations Of Biddeford. II involves mill
lions Of dollars and important consequences.
Although large majority Of the stockhold-
ers Of both corporations have expressed
themselves In favor Of the scheme. the few
who are opposed to II are making a vigorous
contest Chief among them Is Mayor Ros-
eOe l.. Bowers Of SacO, who probably holds
more stock In the two corporations than any
man In the two cities. Mayor Bowers Is
nghter from the word go. IL has not been
forgotten that he made a lively campaign for
the office OF State Treasurer, two years ago.
and last spring he won the most heated con-
test for the mayoralty that Saco had knewn
ior many a year. He rather enjoys being an
offensive partisan" and talks Of making
his hardest fight yet, before the Legislative
committee, against the Pepperell-Laconla
deal In regard to IL, he said 10 the writer:
The capital Of the Pepperell Is 81 10000
tai Of the Laconia Is Si,O00.0O0 and 1t has
surplus Of $4,000 The proposition Of tho
managers Of this deal Is TO scale down the
Laconia's capital to $4,000 and Increase
the PepperelPs capital to Sl,sO0,O0o makinga
new company with a capital Of So, $50, 600
divided in shares of par value OF 500 each.
The par value OF the Pepperell stock at pre-
sent Is $500 and Of the Laeonia, $500. Under
the consolidation, they propose to give n
Pepperell. and shares Of the new stock for
every share Of Laconia, That Is. they give
TO the Peppefell st0ek23 times as much value
as TO the Laconia.
Now, l am opposed to this scheme be-
cause own more LaeOnia than Pepperell,
and think they undervalue the Lae0nla
stock. / do not believe that the Pepper III
stock Is worth y times as much as the La
conia-as they estimate it. | can show that
II has not earned y times as much and that
its assets are not y times as much have
record Of the dividends Of the two COM
panies for the past ten years before me. The
Pepperell has averaged TO pay IL 1-10 per
cent per annum for 10 years. It.has done
better than any other min In Maine, think,
but 1t has not paid p times as much as the
Laconla, which has averaged $40 per cent.
for ten years. u 1-l0 is not q times s 9-1O. Is
it?
Then there are certain advantages which
the LacOnia has over the Pepperell. The La
coma has surplus Of water power, which
the Pepperell has not The latter CORPORA
tiOn's 100000 splndes uses up all OF Its
water. The same water goes 10 the Laconia
on the lower level, with only 1900 spindles,
and II has both room In IFS yard and the
power for a. new mill Of 5000 spindles,
which the Pepperell has not. This mill Ii
going to be built anyway, and unless IL Is
built on the LaeOntas property 10 VIII have
TO be run by steam. Again there Is the old
water power property dams and real estate
worth perhaps S3OOOO0 Of which the Pep
perell owns four sevenths and the LacOnin
three-sevenths say that under these cir
cumstances IL Is not fair to estimate Pepper
ell stock as worth two and One-half times as
much as LaeOnia stock.
II have proposed plan to the directors,
which think would be fair. Let the Pep
perell issue a stock dividend Of $4,000 to
its shareholders, increasing its capital to
S2,0OO,OOO and bringing its surplus down 10
100000. Then consolidate the two COM
panies as they then stand, making no scale
dnrurl Of annnin p