7th March, 1929
PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
(Due to arrive Canberra 6.4.29)
My dear P.M.,
INVESTMENT TRUST COMPANY HOLDINGS IN AUSTRALIA
I have written you before about investment Trust Companies, their recent rise in popularity and the extent to which they are a factor in the financing of development in new countries. [1]
I have recently had taken out lists of the Australian holdings of the Investment Trust Companies of which I have been able to get the ‘portfolios’ of holdings. I enclose herewith, as a possible matter of interest to you, list of Investment Trust Companies in order of the size of their Australian holdings, and list of the Australian investments in the order of their popularity with those Investment Trust Companies.
The figures shown are those of the paid up face value of the securities.
The lists show that these fifteen Companies have invested less than a million pounds in Australia. No doubt the Investment Trust Companies that do not publish their lists of holdings would considerably increase this amount, although the type of Australian enterprise in which they invest is probably sufficiently indicated by my lists.
I am, Yours sincerely, R.G. CASEY
_1 See Letter 157.
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