utah construction company continues in sound financial condition in the opinion of your management its assets are conservatively valued and its capital is ample to carry out its undertakings in addition to its wholly owned subsidiaries utah construction com pany owns stock in 37 affiliated companies of which one is permanente cement company five are concerned with mining or shipping two with heavy construction and in process of liquidation one with grain elevator operations and 28 with the construction or ownership of housing devel op nts these investments are carried on our books at cost which is far below their indicated value because permanente cement company stock is the only stock of those held which is actively traded it is difficult to state accurately the market value of these investments if they were to be sold during 1955 utah construction company distributed 8,670 shares of permanente cement company stock as a dividend reducing its remain ing holdings to 115,033 shares during the year the market value of per manente cement company stock increased from 21,125 to 33.00 a share with the result that our remaining holdings of permanente cement com pany stock had a market value as of october 31 1955 of 3,796,089 com pared to a carrying cost on our books of 235,295 our share of the under lying book value of subsidiary and affiliated companies other than perma nente cement company stock and after allowances for possible losses indicates a value of approximately 10,600,000 compared to a carrying cost of 4,208,827 on the books of utah construction company other fixed assets are believed to be conservatively valued during the year it was necessary to revise upward the net book value of certain items of construction equipment to conform with a tentative settlement reached with the bureau of internal revenue regarding depreciation policies and salvage values provision was made for the additional income taxes pay able when final agreement is reached the difference between the amount of the depreciation adjustment on the equipment and the additional taxes payable was credited to earned surplus and amounted to 956,846 because of the tremendous increase in the volume of contracts entered into during the year it was necessary to revise our loan agreement and to provide for additional bank credits to carry out the work on hand accordingly utah construction company entered into a term loan agreement dated july 18 1955 with its banks whereby a line of credit for 11,000,000 was extended of this amount 6,000,000 is in the form of a term loan with annual payments of 750,000 at the end of the second third and fourth years and the balance of 3,750,000 at the end of the fifth year the remaining 5,000,000 is made available in the form of a revolving credit which can be borrowed and repaid from time to time until july is 1960 as of october 31 1955 the net worth of utah construction company was 18,763,113 or equivalent to 21.38 a share this compares with the net worth at the close of the preceding year of 16,929,608 or 19.29 a share dividends during 1955 dividends of 90 cents a share in cash and 1/100 of a share of permanente cement company stock were distributed to stockholders this compares with 90 cents a share in cash and 1/70 of a share of per nanente cement company stock paid during 1954 employee relations and benefits utah construction company enjoyed good relations with its em ployees and is greatly indebted to them for their part in making possible the achievements of the past year utah construction company continued in effect its group insurance covering 454 of its permanent employees and their families our group insurance plan provides the employees with life insurance as well as hos pital surgical medical polio and accident benefits group life insurance amounts to 3,268,000 and coverage ranges from 2,000 to 20,000 for individual policies during the year 349 claims were paid affecting 250 employees and members of their families the cost of this program was 147.28 for each employee covered a total of 66,865 for the year 1955 utah construction company contributed 290 513 to the retirement plan based on profit sharing this was the maxi mum amount permitted under the plan which limits the contribution to 15 per cent of participating payroll no contribution was required during the preceding year although the board of directors distributed among the members of the plan 50,000 appropriated from surplus and reported to you last year during the year the plan had a net gain of 4 members bringing the total to 257 benefits of 8,238 were paid out to retiring or terminating employees during the year the retirement plan was revised in a manner which your board of directors believes will better accomplish the purposes for which the plan was established during the year george r putnam retired as vice president mr putnam served as manager of the salt lake district and achieved a fine record of accomplishment during his 20 years of faithful service he re tires with the best wishes of all fortunate enough to serve with him