COLONIAL INSURANCE COMPANY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5653, 13 May 1879, Page 3

COLONIAL INSURANCE COMPANY.

(From the Otago Daily Times.) . We have received the first annual report of ■ the Colonial Insurance Company, which was [delivered at a meeting of the company held at Wellington on the 25th ultimo. We are glad to notice that in spite of; the depressed state of the times, the tightness of the money-market, and, above all, the breach of the tariff of insurance rates, the company has succeeded in making a profit, and not only a bare profit, , but one which means a very high rate of interest on the capital employed. We learn that after paying all expenses, such as losses, salaries, and reinsurances, a balance of £11,072 13s. 7d. remains to the credit of the company; but from this amount the directors have deducted the sum of £3214.135. 9d. arid £ll3B ss. fid. for preliminary expenses find stationery respectively, and so the balance'of £6719 14s. 4d. only remains for distribution. The amount of capital paid up at the date of the meeting was £37,500, being 7s. fid, per share on 100,000. shares. 'As the figures at present stand, it would appear that the company had made a profit of about £6OOO on a capital of about £37,000, or something like 17 per cent., during the year; but an examination of their balance-sheet will show that the profit made has been in reality at a higher rate ; for instance, the company has only been in existence practically for a period of nine months, through registered for a year. This fact must, therefore add one-fourth of the amount of profit' to the sum already named. If we then add the two sums which have been deducted for preliminary expenses and stationery, and which are certainly not chargeable to the first year’s income, we should raise the company’s profits for twelve months to something like £12,500. The sum of £37,500 which appears to be paid up at the date of the meeting has in a great measure been called up quite lately, and we may fairly put down the average capital for the year at about £25.000. It appears, then, that the Colonial Insurance Company has made a profit at the rate of about £12,500 on a sum of about £25,000, or, in other words, that they have cleared 50 per cent, on the amount of money subscribed during the past year—a rate of interest which the shareholders may well feel satisfied with. Should the company’s second year be as successful as the last, it will be one more striking example of an important colonial company successfully established. ■ _ '