financial comment the rapid expansion of utah's mining installations in recent years has given rise to a number of changes in utah's capital structure in 1970 the stockholders equity was increased through a public offering in australia and the conversion of deben tures in order to provide a more sub stantial borrowing base in the two following years as capital spending rose to unprecedented levels large amounts of new long-term debt were recorded capital expenditures in 1973 continued at high levels totaling in excess of 100 million including loans to the queensland government to finance certain services required for the operation of utah's coking coal mines however because cash generation has risen substantially in the current year largely due to the perfor mance of new projects most of the year's capital spending was funded internally without the need for large increases in long-term borrowings expenditures in 1974 which are again expected to be substantial are currently projected at 105 million the largest portion of these expenditures is dedicated to ihe new saraji coking coal project with antici pated cash flow and approximately 98 million of additional debt available under existing loan commitments present financial resources appear ample to meet peak borrowing requirements replacement borrowings of the borrow ing arrangements entered into at the time a new project is undertaken a large portion involve interest rates which fluc tuate with money market conditions it has been utah's practice to replace some of these loans with fixed interest rate obligations at such time as acceptable long-term rates become available this occurred on two occasions in 1973 with a new 20 million loan from a group of japanese banks and a loan from the export-import bank of the united states to finance the purchase of american goods for the saraji project changes in currency values again in 1973 imbalances in the relative values of the world's currencies occurred and various countries took corrective action the only currency so involved which directly affected utah's operations was the australian dollar which in three sepa rate instances during the year moved upward against the united states dollar through the provisions of newer sales contracts and by amendment of older contracts with japanese buyers coking coal prices have been increased to com pensate utah for the effect of these revaluations higher capital costs as in the case of the developing saraji mine are not offset in the same manner and will result in somewhat higher amortization charges during the period over which the project is written off iron ore sales contracts do not generally provide for price increases but in the current year the japanese steel industry agreed to higher price levels for the mount goldsworthy group and other australian producers to partially offset the currency movements stock split at the february 1973 meeting of the board of directors action was taken to split the common stock in the form of a 100 stock dividend paid on may 7 1973 14,402,039 new shares were issued at that time shareholders the number of utah shareholders at year end totaled 6604 up slightly from last year these share holders live in all 50 states and in 14 foreign countries the recent merger with ladd petroleum corporation which be came effective on november 30 1973 has caused the number of shareholders to rise materially since the end of the year statement of consolidated income years ended october 31 income gross revenues from operations note 1 . . . . costs and expenses gross profit from operations equity in earnings losses of — affiliates note 2 . . joint ventures and partnerships note 3 interest other net gross profit and other income expenses general and administrative provision for employees retirement plan . interest note 4 . minority interest in earnings of subsidiaries income before income taxes .... provision for income taxes note 5 net income earnings per common share note 6 earnings per common share assuming full dilution note 6 315,645 220,778 an integral part of this :