Abelló Linde Centenary Book

RESULTS AND THE APPLICATION OF PROFITS
he business is going very well. Every financial year closes showing a
Tprofit and this is growing, especially after 1929. This is what can be
seen in the table below. In accordance with the articles of association,
the profits are allocated to pay a 6% dividend to shareholders. When they are
greater, 10% goes to Management, 15% to the Board of Directors, another 15% to
staff and the rest to reserves or to a supplementary dividend. In 1931 a statutory
reserve fund is opened for the first time “due to the fluctuation of our currency
and as a precaution against an official stabilization of the peseta.” 18
Abelló, Oxígeno-Linde. Profits
Profits
(in pesetas) Application shareholders Yield % To reserves
1922 64,039 –
1923 1,966 –
1924 161,618 112,250 5
1925 154,113 123,750 5.5
1926 169,990 135,000 6
1927 175,313 135,000 6
1928 169,555 135,000 6
1929 193,407 135,000 6
1930 262,106 135,000 6
1931 206,728 135,000 6 14,278
1932 226,954 135,000 6 22,068
1933 274,165 180,000 8
1934 325,964 202,500 9
1935 473,603 202,500 9 60,719
But the company’s results do not end with the accounted profits and the
reserves. We also have to analyse a sinking fund that was first created in 1924
and which in 1935 exceeded the company’s capital. The depreciations they
proposed at the end of the financial year were so high that the inspections Treball
made of them considered that they had gone beyond what was acceptable and,
by virtue of this, the Board found itself obliged to transfer the surplus to reserves.
This was approved on December 2 nd 1932 – 25,148 pesetas – and on December
15 th 1934.
At the end of the financial year 1935, the last one before the Spanish Civil
War, Abelló, Oxígeno-Linde presented a very healthy balance:
Capital
2,250,000 pesetas
Reserves 268,000 ”
Investments:
Machinery and bottles 2,362,995 pesetas
Land 343,357 ”
Stockholdings 349,045 ”
Public stocks 675,770 ”
Depreciations: 2,337,000 pesetas, i.e., the equivalent of the entire
productive equipment.
18. Letter from Isidro Abelló to F. Linde, March 23 1931.
The early years of Abelló, Oxígeno-Linde S.A. (1922-1935)