£6,000,000 HATRY DEFICIT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 776, 24 September 1929, Page 1

£6,000,000 HATRY DEFICIT

Finance Expert's Prediction COMPANIES SEEK LIQUIDATION Stock Exchange Nervousness (United r.A.—By Telegraph—Copyright t i Australian ana N.Z. Press Associations (United Service) Received Noon. LONDON. Monday. rE “Daily Express" features an announcement by a financial expert that the Hatry crash will prove smaller than was expected. The expert says the Hatry deficit will be approximately £6,000,*469. The total sum involved is in the neighbourhood of £15,000,000, and the assets are estimated at £9.000,000. “The excited prophecies of unprecedented disaster will not be borne out by facts,” he declares.

The Australian and New Zealand Press Association understands that tfie firm ot brokers, Morton Brothers, took up a considerable part of the Melbourne Board of "Works loan. Sir Archibald Weigall. as chairman, and the other directors associated with the Automatic Machine Company have issued a statement announcing the receipt of a preliminary report from the accountants who were appointed to investigate the company’s position. It is admitted that the recent events seriously affect the company, but the remaining assets are sufficient to cover the preference capital. The directors express the opinion that there is nothing to prevent continuance of trading, but further investigations will be necessary. and these will require considerable time. The Stock Exchange opened in a state of nervousness, which was a natural sequence to the dramatic events of .the week-end, and there was a general marking-down of prices as a precaution, in view of the uncertainty of the situation; but the committee’s prompt action regarding examination of the dealings in the Hatry companies, and the decision not to fix the making up of prices, thus postponing settlement, had a reassuring effect, and the markets closed with a generally cheerful tone, and with some recovery in prices, though gilt-edged relapsed slightly owing to the Bank of England selling about £1,500,000 worth of gold to France.

The Stock Exchange has appointed a sub-committee to examine the clearing sheets of the Hatry group of companies, also the Eastern Photomaton Corporation, and the Wakefield Corporation. The committee will require the brokers to supply the names of the clients for whom they dealt. The board of the Corporation of General Securities. Limited, is applying for compulsory liquidation. The board announces that, following Sir Gilbert Garnsey’s preliminary examination of its affairs, it has also been in consultation with its own auditor! Sir Harry Jeat. and it has been decided to apply for liquidation. It is understood that similar petitions are being presented today in the cases of the Oak Investment Trust, the Austin Friars Trust and the Dundee Trust. Sir Gilbert Garnsey, who is known as “the doctor of sick industries,” and Sir Basil Mayhew, another eminent accountant, assisted by relays of clerks, worked the entire w'eek-end. including far into the early hours of Sunday morning and this morning, investigating the Hatry companies* collapse. Sir Gilbert hopes to make a statement this evening. The “Daily News** says it understands that the Public Prosecutor also continued his investigations. No further immediate arrest is expected. The newspapers generally counsel calmness. Many London brokers will have to meet liabilities varying from £IO.OOO to £20,000