MONEY MATTERS
Page 75
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Bolling Investment Jump
REVIOUS to March 25, 1957, BOILING INVEST.' MENTS LTD. was styled Central Garage Ltd. With headquarters at Bradford, but owning freehold premises at Leeds, Harrogate and Keighley, this group is engaged as distributors of commercial and private motor vehicles and as automobile engineers. The 10s. Ord-nary shares of the group are quoted on the Bradford Stock Exchange where the price of them was marked up smartly by 11s. to 38s. 6d. in recent days.
In July, 1959, a group of which the Hardman Street Property and Investment Company Ltd. is the parent, took a substantial, though not a controll:ng, interest in Bolling. There has been close collaboration between the two boards of management since. In a letter to shareholders, Bolling's chairman, Mr. G. D. C. Rose, states: " Discussions have recently taken place between the d:rectors of Hardman and your own directors and these have been followed by an offer from Hardman to acquire at 41s. per share the 433,900 Ordinary shares of 10s. each fully pad in your company which are not already held by Hardman ". Hardman's present bolding, he adds, is 102,100 Ordinary shares. In addition to the cash price of 41s. per share, holders will receive a second interim dividend of 7/% for the year ended September 30, 1964, "to be declared and paid on or before October 31, 1964 ".
Whilst it is difficult to esfmate the full year's results, Mr. Rose states, so far business has been better and the board anticipate a h:gher profit; they would have hoped to make a total distribution on the Ordinary shares of 224% for the year. On the oiler price, he states, this would be equivalent to a yield of 54%. The directors have accepted the offer in respect of shares held by them and "agreed unanimously to recommend acceptance to the other shareholders ". On the facts now published my vote would have been for acceptance.
When dealings in the 2s. Ordinary shares of AMALGAMATED GARAGE began on the Birmingham Stock Exchange on Tuesday the consensus of opinion there was that there would be a premium of around 3d. per share.
In addition to its activaies as motor vehicle distributor, this group (with subsidiaries in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Northamptonshire) has interests in road
haulage and removals. In the trading year 1963-64 pre-tax profits amounted to £68,000. Following a rise to £91,000 in 1959-60 they slumped badly to E32,000 in 1961-62--the end of the credit squeeze and the writing-off of purchase tax losses must have been factors. Trading must have recovered smartly, however, because the directors make the forecast that for the year ending September 30, 1964, pre-tax profits should be at least 1110,000. Given these earnings the board intends to recommend dividends totalling 15% for a whole year, a payment that would be covered a little more than twice on the present basis, At their placing price of 4s. 6d. per share the yield would be around 64%.
Martin Younger