BIG SHIPPING MERGER

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3102, 5 June 1917, Page 4

BIG SHIPPING MERGER

RED FUNNEL FLEET IN HUGE COMBINE ■' ■ 1 AN UNCONFIRMED REPORT New York. June 3. , A cablegram received at San Francisco reports tho merger of severid British ehip--ping companies, including tho Cu tiara, j'tjiiinsulai- iilid Oriuntal, Coimnomvcallh. uiid Dominion, Allan, L'niun Company of Sew Zealand, Kew Zealand Shipping, and British-India Companies, with, a' total valuation of two', thousand million! dollars. The combine is headed by. Lord Inclicape. Tho report is unconfirmed. ' [Tho P. and 0. and Brihah-India Lines, have for some time past boon, identical! as one undertaking, the Cunard Company has recently absork'd the CoinBionwealth and Dominion- Line, fusion of. the Union Steam Ship Company witli th o ; P and 0 Company is now under con- 1 ' sidoratiou, and the Allan Line nlreadjr, fomis-part of the C;.uadian-Pacihc Kail-, wav Company's enterprises, which include it* own C.P.R. eteamelnp lines trading from Montreal loLlvcnipol and f.;, u "Victoria (Bnt^tW ,0 ,nd Yokohama, Nagasaki, Shanghai, jnd: Hon4ong Uk lnoluape : is ohairmtt , of tho Peninsular and .Oriental Line.] - UNION S,S. CO. AND P. & 0. LINE HEADOUAIRTg^HEMAm: shS from Dunedin- consequent on tho. The P. and 0. Company lstoiauii™ the Union Company .shareholders life.. responding basis of value he snnreholders in the Union Company _ wH, each receive a share of the faco valno, of 10s., but which is actoUy To make it clearer, the P. and 0. Comnany's .«100 shares are worth ,£320, the in? shares will therefore; be worth .t«s. But beyond their share interest ex.. tat_ tion of the company will be unchanged. - The reserve profits will therefore remain the property of tie shareholders. , It is understood that the basis of the protMsed fusion is on somewhat similar lines to those which obtained when a deal was effected between the P. and 0 Companv and the New Zealand Ship-, nine- Company in July o last year The; circular that was issued from London; to shareholders in the latter concern on, that occasion stated thnt the offer was, ctdiS upon the P. and 0. Con,™™ confirming in a general meetme the arrrcement. n ntl W> n tl,e consent,™ **-*•■:' Treasury being obtained to the issue of, tho raid P. and O. deferred stoct, and. also -upon the holders of not less than; 7S per cent, of the issued ordmJirT shares of the New Zealand Shinping ConipnnT, or such less amount as the board of the P. and 0. Company should determine as effectively accepting the offer. The Auckland office of the Union Steam Ship Company is advised by. tho. hend office that it. is not intended to tnaKc any alteration in the numing of the ■Rn'stern Pacific steamers at presentPress Assn. '

CUNARD-AUSTRAUAN LINE. Melbourne, May 26. Last year the well-known Cunarjl Steamship Company, Ltd., of Liverpool, amalgamated with the Commonwealth and Dominion Jiine, the headquarters ot which were situated at 1 enclmrch Avenue, London. The Cunnrd Line, before its comparatively recent losses, coneisted of 3G vessels, aggregating about 380 203 tons, while the Commonwealth and Dominion Line, at the same time, represented 23 vessels, of 153,9,1 tons, all of which were known-in the Australian trade. lu'eoimection with tho amalgamation of the two companies, the jleet of vessels trading to Australia is tote known in future as the Cunard-Austra-lian Line, and notices to this shortly appear at the Australian ofiices of the Commonwealth and Dominion Line Tlie first C'unard steamer to visit Melbourne under the C. and D flag was the Vandalia, which arrived here .last October This vessel, which was origin- 1 aUr & steamer Anglo-CaKforman was purchased-by tho Cunard Company from the Nitrates Producers' Company. Her visit to Melbourne recalled her sensational encounter iu 1915 with an enemy submarine. During this encounter .her master Captain Pawlow, and a seaman Ton oilledV shell fire. British destroyers came upon the scene in tune to «** the vessel, which was snbsciuently naviIJU to port by tho dead commanders son—an officer on the steamer.