| Transcript |
ZE^I 1ST
3>T C2 I
X
capital changes. The two-for-one stock
split, approved by stockholders on September 17, 1956, resulted in the doubling of the
number of common shares. The outstanding common stock was also increased by
126,700 shares through the conversion of
25,340 shares of 4H% First Preferred
J Stock (Convertible), Series B, and by
100,090 shares through the conversion of
$2,166,200 principal amount of 4lA% fifteen-year convertible debentures. In addition, 63,946 shares of Treasury common stock were issued
in the acquisition of the San Antonio Hilton. At year's
end, there were 3,671,602 shares of common stock outstanding, compared with 3,440,478 shares, adjusted for
the split, outstanding at December 31, 1955. Both
amounts listed above exclude Treasury stock.
On October 26, your Directors authorized the purchase of 100,000 shares of common stock, equivalent to
the amount of shares originally issued in 1953 to purchase the Hotel New Yorker. Of this number, 46,900
shares had been purchased by December 31, bringing
the total number of shares in the Treasury to 443,825.
Book value of Hilton Hotels Corporation common
stock was $18.96 per share at December 31, 1956, compared with $15.25 per adjusted share a year ago.
analysis OF long term debt. The consolidated long
term debt of the Corporation was reduced during the
year to $66,780,018 at December 31, 1956, from
$75,022,446 a year earlier. The changes are analyzed
completely on the table on the facing page.
Long term debt of $10,901,763, in the form of mort
gage bonds and notes, was eliminated through the sale of
the New Yorker and the Mayflower properties. In addition, $1,688,769 of subordinated debentures of the Roosevelt were assumed by the purchaser in the sale of that
property. An additional $350,000 payment, apart from
the normal $350,000 installment, was made on the outstanding Waldorf-Astoria loan during the year, reducing
it to $750,000 from $1,450,000 at the end of 1955.
Additions to long term debt included mortgages of
000,000 on the Terrace Hilton, and $450,000 on the
San Antonio Hilton, together with a $2,400,000 note on
the New York Statler.
OUR ASSETS. An impressive yardstick by means of which
a corporation's stature can be measured is the amount of
its total assets at year's end. Hilton Hotels Corporation's
total assets at December 31, 1956, were $187,313,911 —
more than three times the amount of total assets at year's
end in 1946.
An examination of the chart on the opposite page will
graphically demonstrate the Corporation's steady growth,
paralleling the accumulation of hotel properties in the
Corporation's ever-expanding family.
One asset not measurable on a chart is the amount of
good will accruing to a corporation. This is an asset of
inestimable worth, and is dependent upon the corporation's public relations image as it is maintained in the eye
of the public. The image is sustained by what the public
reads and hears about a corporation, and by its direct
experience with the personnel and facilities of the corporation. We feel that our public relations image is an excellent one. We intend, by unremitting attention to
small details, to keep it that way.
10
|
