29 DECEMBER 1939, Page 28

SUGAR DIVIDEND POLICY

Shareholders in Booker Bros., McConnell and Co., the old-established sugar growers, have had the good fortune to enjoy steadier dividends than has been the lot of most investors in the sugar-growing industry. At last week's meeting the chairman, Sir Alfred P. Sherlock, intimated that a Io p.c. dividend was now regarded by the board as a standard rate, and also emphasised that the projected raising of the interim from 4 to 5 p.c. next July would be merely with a view to evenning up the annual distribution, and should not be interpreted as an indication of rising profits. On the score of earnings he was frankly critical of the taxation policy with which they were faced in British Guiana. The sugar industry, he claimed, was regarded as a source of revenue to be squeezed, and, in addition, there were increased costs of wages and supplies. These burdens will obviously reduce the margin of profit resulting from the basic price of IIs. 3d. c.i.f. United Kingdom for the crop under the war control.