BRITISH SHIPPING

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 39, 15 August 1919, Page 7

BRITISH SHIPPING

FURTHER FUSIONS RUMOURED (UNITED PRESS , ASSOCIATION.—COFIKIfIHT.) (AUSTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABU ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, 13th August. There are further rumours of the amalgamation of the working arrangements of the Peninsular and Oriental, Cunard, and Furness-Withy steamship lines. P. and 0. deferred stock is quoted at £580. . , • i For some years past, and that before the war, rumours of great British shipping amalgamations have gained currency in London, and some ot them have become crystallised into fact. The association, of the P. and 0. Line with some other great line is now become what gardener's call a hardy annual. In view of the fusion of * interest© of the P. and 0. and British India, two of the greatest lines in the world, and, to come nearer home, the acquisition by the P. and 0. of predominating interests in the New Zealand Shipping Company and Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand, there is good reason to suppose, that the rumoured amalgamation or lather unification of interests of the P. and 0., Cunard, and Furness-Withy lines is not improbable. The'P. and 0. British India combined lines are already in the trades of British India, Burma, and Straits Settlements, deep water and coastal; London to and from China and Japan; London to and'from Australia, via Cape of Good Hope and Suez Ca.nal; Australia to and from Philippines, Hongkong,|Dhina, and Japan by the recent acquisition of the Eastern and Australian Line; London to and from New Zealand, via Cape of Good Hope and Panama Canal; the New Zealand coastal, Australian, and trans-Paci-fic, and Pacific Island, and the Tas- j manian-Australian trades, through the Union Steam Ship Company. In association with the Cunard Line, the P. and 0.-British India combination would be publicly identified with the "Western Ocean "• or North Atlantic trade; also interests in Canada, Italy, Greece, and Black Sea, and Australia, and New Zealand overseas trade. In association with the Furness-Withy Line, the P v and 0.-British India would have interests •in the trades of the United States and Canada (also Lakes), Argentine, Holland, and " tramp" services that lead to all ports the world over. The share capital of the Furness-Withy Line is £3,500,000, of which £2,000,000 is in ordinary shares. The company has paid 20 par cent, on these shares since and including 1916. It had a reserve of £1,500.000' at last annual meeting, Octoer, 1918. The turnover for 1917-1918 was £106,000.000. It possesses a shipbuilding yard.on the Tees. There were rumours connecting, the Furnesa Line with other lilies so far back aa October last, but they were laid low by Vicount Furness in th« following terms: —"So far as this country is concerned, there are no negotiations in progress or under contemplation, either directly or indirectly, for amalgamation or fusion of interests with any other shipping company." The Canard Co. is not only one of the most famous but one of the oldest ocean lines of steamships in'the world, being founded by Mr. Samuel "Cunard, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1840.

i The ill-fated Lusita-nia belonged to the ffi Cunard Line. The company has acquired iy the Donaldson-Anchor Line, Anchor Line, |j and Commonwealth and Dominion Line, •a Tt trades to New York and other United 'instates ports, to Canada, aJso in the Medi;f tevranean and Black Sea, and to Atis>|itralin and New Zealand. It has also re '|[cently acquired an interest in tho Brockle. 'Shank Line. Tho capital of the Cunard if Co. is £6,000,000. The ordinary dividend 'li of the company is 20 per cent. At tho ifi'last annual meeting of the Cnnard Co. r)Hhe chairman (Sir Alfred Booth) stated if that £1,108,926 had been transferred to %. profit and loss account, as compared with fa more than twice that amount in 1916. He I estimated the value of the £1 shares to be ! then worth (July, 1918) £4 17b per share. I The book value of the company's tonnage f nnd shipping shares wa-s then given at £8.607,914. The chairman added, with ; respect to this item: "You can take any j percentage you please on this figure to fa- | present the appreciation dne to the pref ssnt (1918) inflation of values."