PRUDENTIAL INVESTMENT POLICY
Sir Edgar Home's review of the progress of the Prudent. Assurance Company last week contained two important !tent- of good news for shareholders. The company's motor insu- ance account, which had previously shown a loss, earned small profit in 1938. This result he attributed in part to th, cancellation of certain contracts with continental companic-
but apart from those cancellations he regarded the accour• as now more satisfactory. Sir Edgar did not say whether th.-
improvement is peculiar to the Prudential or general to the insurance companies, but any evidence of recovery in wh': has for some years been the black spot in insurance balance- sheets must be very welcome. His other outstanding item of good news was that in 5P' ' of the fall in security values last year the surplus of marls (Continued on page 468) FINANCIAL NOTES (Continued from page 466)
values over ledger values in the investment portfolio remains very substantial, with the investment reserve and other con- tingency accounts intact. It was as a purely precautionary measure that £75,000 had been applied to writing down securities. Sir Edgar mentioned that nearly all the year's investments had been made within the British Empire, and that in particular they had made new purchases of real property to the extent of about £.1,5oo,000. The company now has real property investments standing at a " very con- servative valuation " of over £25,000,000.
* * *
Previous page
