HATRY GROUP.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19777, 15 November 1929, Page 15

HATRY GROUP.

GREAT FINANCIAL CRASH. A METEORIC CAREER. CHARGE OF CONSPIRACY. IFEOH OCR OWK COMX6POKDKKT.) LONDON, September 26. Mr Clarence C. Hatry, the principal character in the financial crash that bus atartlsd England, has had a meteoric care?r. He was a clerk in an insurance office just before the war. Before he millions, and now his star seems to have sot. Atter the war he quickly became jocognised as an exceedingly clever negotiator, and his speotacular deals, wbkh tor a time proved successful, put liini in a strong financial position. He worked for more than 12 hours a <iay in his office in the City, from which he controlled with amazing skill the raanv companies under his domination. His energy was enormous and he was always on the lookout ior new avenues to wealth. One of his most spectacular deals was the acquisition of the Commercial Hank of London just after the war. It was a comparatively unimportant concern when he secured control, but, using it as a base, Hatry negotiated TiO large deals, involving a total capital of nearly £30,000.000. Thia bank, which afterwards became the Commercial Corporation of London, was one of the most active promoters of industrial issues during the 1919-30 boom. Everything with which Hatry was connected at the time seemed to prosper. But when the boom subsided Hatry's prosperity suffered a set-back, and in 1921 the hanking side of the business was given up, Tfca Crash of 1984. The crash ramt in 1924. The Commercial Corporation of London went into liquidation and all that has so fnr been sated from the wreckage for the shareholders is Is 7d in the £. The liquidator; in his last report, anticipated onlv a small final payment. The slump that followed the 1919-20 boom was disastrous all round for Hatry and thousands of his shareholders. The British Glass Industries, one of the Commercial Bank's biggest flotations, lost virtually the whole of its issued capital of £3,657,701. Another of Hatry's financial children, Jute Industries, recently had its capitaf of £4,500,000 reduced to £1,650,000. But Hatry received these financial blowß with* a smile and embarked upon more spectacular adventures. He "came back in 1925 with the flotation of the Drapery Trust, which now controls a chain of old-established department stores throughout the country. Pebenhams, Ltd., later paid £2 and more per share to get control of the Trust. Hatry wrested from influential inteii'sts nearly the whole of the imporrart business of arranging the issue of British municipal loans, and he arranged a big combination of light castings businesses without any public issue of capita!. In the spring of this year Hatry figured in what was tbe equivalent of a capital reorganisation of the United Steel Companies; he undertook to purchase the various securities of the company. This operation resulted in the foitnation of Steel Industries of Great Britain, Limited, which controls United Steel Companies, Limited. This transaction, which involved a sum of about £8,000.000 haa only recently b«*en completed. It had been bis hope to make the Steel Industries of Great Britain the nucleus of a much larger combination. He also brought jihoiit the formation this year of Allied Ironfoundera, Limited, which was a merger of companies engaged in the light castings industry.

Admission of Guilt. Mr Hatry and three of his associates in companies known as the Hatry group, surrendered themselves to the City police after an interview with the Directors of Public Prosecutions. Thev appeared before Alderman Sir George Truscott, at the Guildhall. The formal charge read as follows: "For that the accused, in the City of London, between July Ist, 1929, and laying of this information (September 20th) unlawfully did conspire together to obtain by false pretences, and with intent to defraud, of and from George Ireland Russell, acting on behalf of the Porchcster Trust, Limited, the sum of £209,141; and, further, that in pursuance of the said conKpiracy, they did obtain that sum of £20°,H1." Addressing the sitting Alderman Mr H. A. K. Morgan, who appeared on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions, said:— "The eharges in this case are serious, not only because of the manner in which the alleged fraud was carried out, bnt in view of the large sum of money obtained."

The four defendants, continued Mr Morgan, were directors and managers of the Austin Friars Trust, Limited, which in July last obtained from Mr Russell, of the Porchester Trust, Limited, £209,141 on the deposit of certain securities, £150,000 of which, while purporting to be £150,000 of the Wakefield Corporation Four-and-a-half per cent. Stock, was absolutely fictitious and valueless. The issuing company—Corporation and General Securities, Limited—which was undoubtedly connected with the Austin Friars Trust, and of which some of the defendants were directors (and all were intimately connected with it), had, in the early part of the year, on behalf of the Wakefield Corporation, issued £750,000 worth of Four-and-a-Half per cent. Stock, and that £750,000 was fully taken up and subscribed for by the publie; and in that stock siderable dealings were taking place. The defendants, knowing this, purported to deposit with Mr Kussell bearer script certificates for £150,000 of that stock; but as the total loan of £750,000 had been taken up, of course these £150,000 certificates were so niueh waste paper. The money advanced by the Porchester Trust was used in the general business of the Hatry group of companies. Mr Knight, who appeared for the defence, asked for bail mainly on the ground that the investigation of affairs would be hampered if the defendants were not available to help. The Alderman regarded the ease as very serious, and declined to grant bail at present. Shortly afterwards the accused were taken by taxieab to Brixton j Prison. * j Companies Affected. The five Hatry issues in which dealing has been prohibited by the Stock Exchange Committee for General Purposes have a total capital of £5,478,500. The individual capitals and the directors were as follows:—Photomaton Patent Corporation: £1,578,500. Directors: Marquis of Winchester fehainnan), R. 0. Daviea, R. P. Gaze, W. D. Morgan, '

W. de Selincourt, Sir William Veno, O. M. Wright. Retail Trade Securities: £1,350,000. Directors: Marquis of Winchester (ebairman), C. Hatry (deputy-chair-man), Edmund Daniels, J. H. Guy, E. Spyer, J. Gialdini, A. E. Tabor (secretary). Associated Automatic Machine Corporation: £1,200,000. Directors: Sir Archibald Weigall (chairman), W. P. Morgan, J. Gialdini, G. Bradshaw, B. Dawson, H. T. White. Oak Investment Corporation: £730,000. Directors: Edmund Daniels (managing), J. Gialdini (assistant managing), R. O. Crichton, G. P. Fordsdike, Sir Ernest Hiley, A. E. Tabor (secretary). Corporation and General Securities: £700,000. Directors: Marquis of Winchester (chairman), C. Hatry (deputychairman), Edmund Daniels (managing), W. C. Buckley, Sir Ernest Hiley, H. J. W. Jarvis, E. W. Mitchell, Sir Archibald Weigall, J. G. Dixon (secretary). Lord Winchester, who is chairman of a number of companies comprising the Hatry group, issued a statement to the effect that on the instructions of various banks and other parties an investigation was being made by Sir Gilbert Garney, of Messrs Price, Waterhotise, and Co., into the affairs of the Hatry group. Parent Trust and Finance Co. It is now known that the Parent Trust and Pinanee Co., of which Sir Arthur du Cijos is chairman, is heavily involved, the following statement having been issued on Saturday:— The secretary of the Parent Trust and Finance Co., Ltd., announces that the company desire to give this early intimation that they are interested in large blocks of shares of the Hatry group, which are held as security for loans, or are deposited to cover guarantees for very substantial amounts given by the company for the purpose of providing the Austin Friars Trust with finance, mainly in connexion with the Steel Industries of Great Britain, Ltd. The directors, who are among the largest shareholders, regret to state that the position of all classes of shareholders will be most seriously affected by the collapse in market values whieh has taken place. During a week of acute tension Mrs Hatry saw the gathering of the clouds and the approach of disaster to the gigantic undertakings her husband had built up, stated the "News of the World" on Sunday. Even a man of steel could not face such a conflict with adversity without showing signs of strain, and it was inevitable that his devoted young wife should know the worst. Mindful, perhaps at this Mack moment of the tragic fate of other great financiers when the edifice of their fortune had tumbled about their ears —of the shot which ended the career of the late Mr James White—she earnestly besought her husband to promise not to take his life, but manfully to shoulder his burden to the bitter end. This promise he gave her. Mr Erie Hatry, who is a stockbroker, said in an interview with a "Daily Mail" reporter:— '' My brother was a first-class engineer, and might have made that his profession. One of his patents was the one in general use now, whereby one can detect the exaet seat of the trouble when an electric light fuses. He was also a good amateur musician. He did not know a note of music, hut could play anything by ear. "He had an exquisite taste in furniture. He could equally well have earned his livelihood as an interior decorator. "He had an absolute genius for figures, and could do almost any complicated arithmetical sum in his head. "He had an ability to make himself charming to a remarkable degree." Hatry's mother is in France, and his wife is staying with friends in the country.

SOUTHERN CROSS TEAR. The Southern Cross Assurance Company, Ltd., last year, ended Jane 80th, accepted 6540 proposal! for £1,805,708, yielding; annual premium* of £67,427. The previous year proposal* accepted were for 11,766,057. Renewal premiums were £124,284, and total premium income, including; consideration for annuities (£1453) was £179.339. Claims seder policies were, by death £21,043 and hospital treatment £1593. Cash surrenders were £5418. Field and management expenses amounted to £121,076, being 67i per cent, of premium income. Interest, rents, »nd other receipts amounted to £27,549. Funds of the ordinary department at the eloae of the year were £288,624, an addition of £42.841. In the accident department as a result of the year's operations, funds diminished by £347 to £9458. The balance-sheet shows capital of £300,000. an overdraft of £32,841, and mortgages of £57,500. Assets are valued at £481,548. There is as establishment, organisation, new business extension, and purchase account of £202.616.