Page:Hints About Investments (1926).pdf/129

 no arrears of interest or dividend due to debenture holders or preference shareholders.

From the point of view of the creditors the position is different, but quite comfortable. They rank first, but, naturally, only to the extent of their claim. All that concerns them taken as a whole is to be sure that out of assets valued at over 8½ millions, their aggregate debt of £3,843,000 will be met in full, and the margin is surely large enough to satisfy the most exacting, especially when they notice that debtors, investments, cash and bills receivable come to £3,723,014, almost enough to satisfy them, without disposing of any of the freehold brewery site and buildings, or the tied houses, or the stock of materials and beer made and in the making, to say nothing of that elusive and incalculable item, the goodwill.

Creditors, as need hardly be said, are not an aggregate all on the same basis, and anyone contemplating a purchase of Bass Debenture stocks would have to be careful to see in what order they rank in priority of claims and how much power the directors have to put claims ahead of them in borrowing money for the purposes of the business. But when all this has been investigated it will appear that the position is as sound as a straightforward