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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[June i, 1910. 



Rubber Plantation Results. 



THE India Rubber World is in receipt of several letters of 

 inquiry respecting a recent article in a popular magazine 

 ( The Saturday Evening Post), the evident purpose of 

 which is to discredit the reports of large dividends paid by 

 rubber plantation companies. The passage in this article which 

 has induced most of these inquiries is quoted here — from a sup- 

 posititious dialogue between an intending investor in rubber and 

 a friend who dissuaded him: 



Keep your two thousand, my boy. Put your money in 

 the bank, and forget you ever heard of rubber." 



The red haired man gasped. 



"But the Vallambrosa company declared a dividend of 80 per cent. — " 

 he began. 



"It did, and that was exactly twenty years after its formation; during 

 that twenty years no dividend was heard of. It figures down to 4 per 

 cent, a year. Are you going to wait twenty years and then give the stock 

 to your daughter for a wedding present" 



The ruby haired gentleman hesitated. 



We believe the Vallambrosa Rubber Co., Limited, was regis- 

 tered in Edinburgh, April 22, 1904, so that it lacks fourteen years 

 of being twenty years old. The company was formed by com- 

 bining three neighboring estates, privately owned, on which some 

 rubber had been planted in each year, beginning with 1898 

 The oldest rubber, therefore, is just now 12 years old. When 

 the company was two years old, and the oldest planting had 

 reached an age of 8 years, the company had marketed 39,113 

 pounds of rubber, at a handsome profit, but no dividend was 

 declared in that year. The subsequent record has been, of 

 yield (in pounds) and dividends paid : 



Date. Yield. Dividend. 



Year ending March 31, 1907 156,922 55 % 



Year ending March 31, 1908 225,302 55 % 



Year ending March 31, 1909 272,741 80 % 



Year ending March 31, 1910 370,902 066^3% 



[o — The accounts for the year have not been published; only an 

 interim dividend has been declared; it is expected that the total for 

 the year will exceed 80 per cent.] 



Assuming that the dividend for last year will be 80 per cent., 

 the Vallambrosa shareholders will have realized a yearly average 

 of 45 per cent., from the date of organizing their company. Or. 

 dividing the declared profits by 12, the average is 22J4 per cent., 

 but this would be an unfair treatment of the subject, since so 

 large a proportion of the company's trees are not yet 12 years old. 

 With regard generally to the age of cultivated Hcvea trees 

 now productive in the Far East, only a small percentage appear 

 to have reached the age of 12 years. The latest declaration of 

 dividends of several leading companies, and the published sta- 

 tistics of their trees at April 1 of this year can be stated as 

 follows : 



Per Cent. 

 Selangor. — Twelve years, 188 acres; eleven years, 116 acres; ten 



years, 231 acres; less than ten years, 970 acres 287 J4 



Linggi. — From 6J<2 to twelve years, 62,000 trees; under 6'/a years, 



579,000 trees 165 



/'tilling. — From seven to twelve years, 35,730 trees; under seven 



years, 168,304 trees 125 



tnglo-Malay. — Twelve years and over, 612 trees; ten to twelve years, 



11,942 trees; not over ten years, 549,434 trees 80 



Hukit Rajah. — Six to twelve years, 111,432 trees; under six years, 



175,183 trees 60 



Federated {Selangor). — Eleven years, 6 acres; eight years and under, 



1,017 acres 60 



Cicely. — Nine years, 159 acres; live years and less, 670 acres 50 



Batu Caves. — Seven to nine years, 239 acres; six years and under, 



902 acres 50 



Damansara (Selangor). — "In bearing," 800 acres; six years and less, 



969 acres '. 50 



SOME OTHER RUBBER PLANTATION YIELDS. 



The yield of The Beverlac (Selangor) Rubber Co., Limited, 

 for the calendar year 1909 was 78,128 pounds. The cost of pro- 



duction, with charges for putting the rubber on the market is 

 stated at the equivalent of 30.65 cents (gold) per pound, against 

 37.31 cents in the preceding year. 



Consolidated Malay Rubber Estates, Limited, in Negri Sembi- 

 lan, Federated Malay States : 



1906. 1907. 1908. 1909. 



Yield (pounds) 32,693 63,615 111,585 215,893 



Selling price, net 4s. n.77d. 3s.6.i4d. 4s. 2.22d 7s. 2.07d. 



Equivalent to $1.21.1 85.4 $1.01.7 $1.98.7 



Dividend 10% 10% i7'A'7o 80% 



The cost of the rubber, f. o. b. is figured at n%d. per pound; 

 with London charges added, the figure is is. 5</., without in- 

 cluding any part of administration charges. 



Linggi Plantations, Limited, in Negri Sembilan, Federated 

 Malay States : 



1906. 1907. 1908. 1909. 



Yield (pounds) 17,2-9 110,741 284,873 545,219 



Selling price, net 5s. o.6od. 3s. 3.83d. 4s. 2.55d. 6s. i.8d. 



Equivalent to $1.22.8 .80.7 $1.02.4 $1.49.5 



Dividend 15% 20% 60% 165% 



[Yield in 19C5 — 2,800 pounds; dividend 4*/' ] 



The capital of the company is £100,000. The profit for the 

 last year was £166,743 i°j. srf. The number of trees tapped, of 

 all ages, was 151,796, and the average yield per tree 3.52 pounds. 

 The average cost of rubber, f. o. b., is figured at 11.34^. [=23 

 cents, gold] per pound. 



NEARLY 300 PER CENT. ON SELANGOR SHARES. 



It is to be noted, in the latest report of the Selangor 

 Rubber Co., Limited, in the Federated Malay States, that none 

 of their trees are above 12 years old, and the company have 

 been heavy dividend payers for four years past. A com- 

 parative statement for four years follows: 



1906. 1907. 1908. 1909. 



Yield (pounds) 70,577 120,524 189,979 326.654 



Selling price, net 5s. iJ4d. 3s. iod. 4s. lJ4d. 6s. 7d. 



Equivalent to $1.24.6 93.2 $1.06.4 $1.60 



Dividend 40% 4'-6% 75% 28714% 



During these four years the shareholders have had returned 

 to them an average of III per cent, of their capital. The 

 amount outstanding is £30,000 [=$145,995]. 



FORWARD SALES OF RUBBER. 



The Gallawatta (Ceylon) Rubber Co., Limited, have entered 

 into a contract to deliver 30,000 pounds best quality of their 

 191 1 crop at 6 rupees [=$1.94.6] per pound. 



The Manikande Rubber Co., Limited, of Ceylon, have sold for- 

 ward 7,000 pounds of their 191 1 crop at 5 rupees [=$1.62.2] per 

 pound. 



The current year's product of the Udapolla Rubber Co. has 

 been sold at 5.50 rupees [=$1.78.4] per pound. 



The Straits Settlements (Bertram) Rubber Co., Limited, have 

 sold forward their 191 1 sheet and crepe rubber at 11 shillings 

 [=$2.67.6] per pound. 



GERMAN INTEREST IN RUBBER PLANTING. 



A lively interest exists in Germany in investments in rubber 

 plantations, particularly in German colonial possessions. A 

 considerable amount of rubber is reported to have come 

 forward already from such plantations in German East 

 Africa and New Guinea. In the latest issue of "Adressbuch 

 dor Deutschen Gummi-, Guttapercha- und Asbest- Indus- 

 trie" appear the names and addresses of no fewer than 63 

 rubber planting companies having their headquarters in Ger- 

 man cities, 34 of these being domiciled in Berlin. Of the 

 latter the capitalization of 26 is mentioned with a total of 

 41,326,300 marks [=$9,835,659.40]. On the boards of some 

 of these are some leading German rubber manufacturers, as 

 in the case of Herr Emil Spannagel, director of Vereinigte 



