THE AFFAIRS OF PEDRAIL TRANSPORT, LTD.
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IN compliance with a notice issued by
Brown, Peet and Tilly, a meeting of the creditors of Pedrail Transport, Ltd., was held at the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Iloorgata Place: E.G., on October 28th, when the chair was taken by Mr. Peet. The chairman stated that the meeting was quite an informal one, as the company was not in voluntary liquidation, and the meeting therefore was not convened under any section of the Companies Acts. It had, however, been thought desirable to call the creditors together for the purpose of explaining to them the present position of the company.
'In regard to the financial position of the company, he feared the situation as regards the trade creditors was anything but a -hopeful one. In the first place there were first debentures amounting to £25.000, with accrued interest, and there were second debentures of £6,000, about £500 being also due in respect of accrued interest on that issue. Here, therefore. they had practically £31,000 of debentures, which, of course, ranked in front of the trade creditors' claims. The claims of the unsecured creditors amounted to £5,500. Now, with regard C18
to the asset; there was cash in the hands of the receiver amounting to about £7,000. There were also leasehold premises at Fulham, machinery, furniture, a-n-cl book debts, etc. which he had at present put down at £3,000.
The company was formed a good many yea,rs ago for the purpose of exploiting an invention brought out by Mr. B. J. Diplock, the invention being a patent tractor for haulage purposes. About two years ago the inventionreached a more perfect stage, and. it was then that a certain financial group had their attention drawn to the matter, and took a real interest in the invention. Indeed, they went so far as to enter into some agreement with the company which was dated March 19th, 1919. This .financial group formed a company called the Staines Pro jectile Co., Ltd. Mr. Peet. then read various clauses of an agreement that, had been made between the two companies, and which purported to show that the Pedrail Co. should receive certain royalties on the sales up to a certain amount, and the effect of this was that £2.500 and £3.750 might go into the coffer.; of the Pedrail Co. in certain
events. These constituted what he had described as the contingent assets of the business. The company's operations had bee-n interfered with seriously by the mbulders' strike, while -the directors were considerably hampered in regard to their financial resources.
A creditor in the room said he had a claim of £,550, and his experience was that in these matters somebody usually got the benefit, but it, was not the trade creditors. (Laughter). Personally, he was prepared ' to leave matters where they were or vote for liquidation, but in any event he could not see where £31,0B0 was coming from to pay out even the debenture holders. This creditor 'stated subsequently that he knew the patent which the company produced very well, and it was in every way an excellent thing for certain kinds of rough • country. But the main disadvantage was that it cost from anywhere between £5.000 and £9,000 to produce the patent, and this was a prohibitive figure commercially.
In the result no resolution was passed, the matter being left in the hands of the receiver.