£7m. Shares in B.R.S. (Parcels Offered for Sale
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TENDERS for the purchase of the £7m. share capital of B.R.S. (Parcels), Ltd., were invited this week. The closing date is January 25. Ten per cent, of the tender price has to be paid in cash on acceptance of the offer, and 90 per cent, on completion.
In the six months ended June 30 last the company made a profit of £462,232 after charging £206,014 to .depreciation. The profit was struck after deducting a management charge of £115,000 made by the British Transport Commission, but before providing for taxation. About 4,000 operational vehicles ranging in payload capacity from under 2 tons to 15 tons, 1,200 additional trailers, 280 containers and 160 cars and service vehicles are included in the property.
Contracts to the value of £1,523,500 for the purchase of new vehicles have been placed this year as part of a £1,750,000 renewal programme.
According to the prospectus the directors think that another 11.1m. should be spent next year on vehicles to bring them up to the required standard. In view of the intended disposal of the shares, however, next year's replacement programme has been limited to £750,000.
Land, buildings and their equipment are valued at 14,115,640 and the directors estimate that expenditure of about £4m. will be necessary over the next five years, of which £1.25m. should be spent as soon as possible.
The company paid the British Transport Commission £6,848,162 14s. 7d. for the assets, which at June 30 last were valued at £6,787,803: The fleet is valued at just over .12m.
Some 13,000 places in England, Scotland and Wales are Served and connections are provided to Northern Ireland.
Depot System There are 29 depots in London and the Home Counties, six in the southwest of England up to Portsmouth, eight in East Anglia, Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, 12 in Scotland, 16 in Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire, Cheshire and Ihe north coast of Wales, one in Belfast, 19 in north-east England as far south as Newark and Lincoln, 20 in Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the East Midlands, and seven in Mid Wales and South Wales, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire and Oxfordshire. Some 30 depots provide warehouse facilities.
Subject to the completion of the segregation of the company from the B.T.C. within the Western Area, B.R.S. (Parcels) are wholly responsible for their own commercial, operational and accounting matters.
The company have not sufficient working capital for their existing business and they have borrowed money without interest from the Commission. It is estimated that when the sale of the shares • is completed, the company will owe the Commisiion about £1.5m.
The staff totals about 12,900. The A32 directors, who will resign when the shares are sold are Maj.-Gen. G. N. Russell (chairman and managing director), Mr. Claud Barrington, Mr. G. F. Sinclair, Mr. G. W. Quick Smith and Mr. N. R. Bellwood. Under an agreement Of August 23 last, Mr. Barrington will serve as general manager, at a salary of £3,750 a year, for at least three years.
The directors believe that the profits for the second six months of the year will be at least as high as those of the first six months.
" In considering whether the price offered for the shares is a reasonable one, the Commission and the Disposal Board will have regard (inter alia) to the fact that the company will be entitled to use the name ' Carter Paterson,'" says the prospectus.
R.H.A. MEET MINISTER
THE chairman's committee of the Road Haulage Association met the Minister of Transport last Friday to reinforce the case already presented in opposition to his new policy on disposal. The views expressed by members of the Association's conference at Harrogate were reported to him.
The deputation consisted of Mr. James Barrie; national chairman, Mr. R. G. Crowther, Mr. R. N. Ingram, Mr. J. B. Mitchell and Mr. Frank F. Fowler, national vice-chairmen, Mr. R. Morton Mitchell, chief executive officer, and Mr. E. W. Russell. It is believed that the Minister ',would not bind himself to the date for the introduction of the Bill to give effect to his new policy, but that it will not be delayed.
Local arrangemenn are being made by the R.H.A. to inform Members of Parliament of the Association's attitude towards disposal.
MR. CARLING OFF TO AFRICA I N a few days Mr. A. F. R. Carling, a member of the executive of the British Electric Traction Co., Ltd., is going to Africa in connection with the interests of B.E.T. and the John Watts group.
Co-ordination Soon at Glasgow ?
I N spite of " formidable difficulties and problems to be overcome" there should be no difficulty in reaching
agreement on co-ordination . of Glasgow's municipal transport services with those of the nationalized bus undertaking and the railways, according to air. J. J. McCrossan, convener of Glasgow Transport Committee.
It is understood that recommendations on this question may soon be made to the committee by the corporation's representatives on the Glasgow Passenger Transport Committee, on which the British Transport Commission are also represented.
Cllr. G. Reid, a member of the joint committee, said it was his personal conviction that, by and large, the Inglis Report provided a sound basis on which to work out the future pattern of public transport in and around the city.
The B.T.C. have already agreed to embark on the first stage of a modified electrification scheme, as recommended in the report, subject to co-operation by the municipal authorities.
On Monday the municipal representatives agreed to cease the operation of trams outside the city. The abandonment of the Airdrie and Paisley train routes is among detailed proposals to be submitted shortly to Glasgow Passenger Transport Joint Committee.
RUSSIANS VISIT DUPLE
ON Tuesday, Mr. Alexander Ivanov, Russian Deputy Minister of Transport and Highways, together with a party of transport officials from the U.S.S.R., visited Duple Motor Bodies, Ltd.