Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-15
GOBBLES In AMERICA.
The Actual Purchases Made Here by
English Capitalists
NOT SO HEAVY As ANTICIPATED.
Yankee Firms That Are Authorized to Do
Business for the Lords.
NEGOTIATIONS THAT FELL THROUGH


closed. From now until Inc miuuio VI Au
gust the market will be devoted to the regu'
lar every day old-fashioned stocks and Sc.
curities. Outside speculation does not
tempt John Bull during the summer
months. He prefers his regular dividends
of only 2 or per cent to CHANGING invest.
ments that will bring him in from Z to Il
per cent, consequently there will be lull
for few months in the promotion and float
ing of American enterprises.
So much has been said about the various
American business projects that are alleged
to have been marketed in London that it
may be of considerable interest to narrate
what has really happened in that line. The
stories printed in the daily press cannot re-
| ceiye much credence. The trouble is not
with the newspapers, or the correspondents
| who send the reports, but with the men VINO
want to make the sale to English capital
lists. They dupe the correspondents Tor
their own interests.
| THE AMERIC AN REPRESENTATIVES,.
The leading concerns in New York which
actually represent foreign capital In some
shane or some English investment or trust
company are very few. Samuel Untermeyer
is one; Cary & Whitridge, Wall street
firm of solicitors, is another; Perkins g
Mott are third. Then there are big law
firms like that of Seward, Da Costa, Guth-
rie & Lynde, Stetson & MacVeagh, OF
which Grover Cleveland is member, who
are solicitors for several enormous concerns
in London and at Manchester. Edinburgh
and Dublin. Outside of these represents
tive concerns there are scores of lawyers,
bankers and stock brokers who work through
| some friend or broker in London. In these
| latter cases the brokers in London peddle
| the schemes they get from New York around
| among the investment companies and the
| established banking houses of the English
metropolis.
There is a reasonable market in London
for first-class American enterprises, but the
market was more than glutted this past win
ter. The English investor is an eager pur-
chaser OF the American projects under
written in. London, but there are not many
that reach the point of underwriting. They
are usually refused by the responsible par
ties after examination of the papers that 60
across the Atlantic.
THE ENTERPRISES DISPOSED OF.
Since last autumn, when the demand for
American properties set in, only the follow
ing projects have been actually foated
and the stock disposed of: The Hammond
Dressed Beef Company, the city of Spring
field (O.) breweries, the San Francisco
breweries, the New England breweries. con-
sisting of several in Boston and one in Law
renee, Mass; the st. Louis breweries, the
Eastman Abattoir and Dressed Beet Com
pany, the Philsbury flour mills, the North
Alabama Development Company, owning
lands and preparing to purchase lands in
some of the Southern States; and the War
ner Kidney Cure and other proprietary
medicines owned by 81. II. Warner, of
Rochester. In the latter case Mr.. Warner
went to London himself and spent six
months with brokers, who finally managed
to get it underwritten. The Lombard In
vestment Company, of New York, also dis
posed OF some of its stock in a rather novel
way through the Trustees, Securities and
Executors Trust.
These are the American concerns whose
plants have really been bought and the deals
completed. Nothing more will be foated
until autumn. There are several enter
prises, however, that have reached the point
where the listing of the stock is ready. The
Chicago breweries is one of these. Mr.. Rus
sell h. Monro, Of London, who came to
America for the City of London Contract
Corporation, is on his way back, having
Contract Corporation has really foated all
the American breweries of late, beside re-
jecting any quantity of them.
AMERICAN BLOOD IN IT.
This concern has the largest amount of
capital at its disposal, and is more success
full in underwriting and floating enterprises
than any other English investment corpor-
ton. Colonel H. Osborne O'Hagan, the
manager, is an American by birth, and has
all the push and perseverance of the land he
halls from. He is understood to have
cleared over S5,00O,000 in less than two
years out OF the projects he has successfully
marketed in England. Mr.. Monro, the
travelling representative of the company,
has also made fortune.
The corporations American interests are
being looked after, it is understood, by
Seward, Da Costa B Guthrie, the solicitors,
and Perkins & Mott, brokers, in New York
The latter firm has several large deals ready
for the autumn market, among them the
combination of Trenton On. j. potteries,
mentioned some months ago when the con-
ditions were first accepted, and also COM
binstion of type foundries and furnaces. 1t
is also rumored on pretty good authority
that Colonel O'Hagan and Mr.. Mott are
working hard and in unison to consummate
the largest deal yet made in the States.
The nature of the project is kept secret.
There is going to be renewed demand
next fall I0r American investments, but they
will have to be gilt-edged and come through
the proper channels in order to be success
fully negotiated. Manufacturing establish
ments will be preferred, but they will have
to show an average percentage of profit for
from three to five years of at least IL or 13
per cent on the purchase price. The cost of
underwriting has increased fully 30 per cent
during the past year, and therefore big
profit must be shown in order to render the
common stock attractive when it is listed
and presented to the public.
BREwERIEs AND MINES.
There is still room for some first-class
breweries, but American mining projects
are in almost as bad repute in London as
they are in New York. The only mines that
meet with favor are the gold mines of South
Africa and some of the exceedingly valu-
able silver mines in Mexico. The silver
bill in Congress has given silver something
of boom in London, but it remains to be
seen whether the boom will hold out until
autumn. The final action of Congress will
have much to do with it. The Mexican
Explorations Limited), is an English cor
poration that is making a specially of Mex
lean properties, and keeps experts on the
ground all the while watching develop
ments there. There is also an exploration
company in which the Rothschilds and the
Barring Brothers are interested that is said
to have a representative in the coal regions
looking for bargains.
The main concerns in England that are
interested in the neootiation of merican