to the ownership and operation of additional ships a general overall increase in cargoes and a marked improvement in the cost-revenue relationship in the operations of ships under charter during the year san juan carriers ltd launched an 18,300 deadweight ton vessel and ordered a new 67,500 deadweight ton ore carrier for delivery in 1962 construction the construction activities of the company were carried on during the year in the united states and twelve foreign countries on six continents the assignments were well diversified but the gross volume of work performed was less than the previous year profit performance although not furnishing the desired return on our investment in these activities did show modest improvement over 1959 and the unfavorable trend which has been in existence in recent years appears to have been halted the factors contributing to profit improvement in the face of lower volume were a program of reduction of overhead costs and better profit margins because of the conclusion during the year of a number of loss opera tions which have plagued past years performance the prospect for further improvement in 1961 is directly dependent upon acquisition of additional volume of work particularly in the united states in order to achieve better balance with the present heavy proportion of foreign work mainly written on a fixed fee basis hydr&uiic dredging hydraulic dredging activities were carried on at widely separated locations by our own 30-inch dredges the franciscan per formed port work profitably at long beach california and the alameda did channel dredging for the u s corps of engineers in the delaware river overall results produced a loss mainly because of unanticipated difficulties encountered in the material to be moved for the delaware job the con tracting officer has formally acknowledged this condition granted and awarded a partial price adjustment and is currently studying a request for further adjustment the franciscan is presently operating in the san fran cisco bay area but the alameda is idle and berthed on the atlantic coast land development the land development operations which made a very substantial addition to 1959 earnings were conducted on a modestly profitable basis during 1960 the tempo of land sales for residential usage at moraga vandenberg and alameda were hampered by the reduced demand for housing and high cost of mortgage financing which prevailed throughout the year the sales of property from our south san francisco industrial park development to industrial customers continued through the year on a satis factory and profitable basis the overall profits for this division of corporate activities were depressed in general by a combination of low volume and high carrying charges for projects in developmental stages financial condition and shareholders equity throughout the year the company's financial position continued to remain strong the year-end ratio of current assets to current liabilities was 2 to 1 an improvement over the previous year the excess of current assets over current liabilities at october 3 1 st amounted to 9,942,549 which was 709,942 higher than at the prior year-end under the terms of the loan agreement executed in 1958 between the company and a group of major u s financial institutions which continues through 1963 the 26 million loan credit available to the company at the commencement of the year of which 21 million was actually then in use declined to 23 million at october 31 1960 at which time 19 million was in use added to the 2 million retired during the year under this credit were 1,900,000 of loan credits retired on behalf of lucky me uranium corporation by february 1960 being the remaining balance of the original 10 million debt financing which was arranged by utah in 1957 to develop the mine and erect the mill the terms of the loan agreement mentioned above provide that the credit available to the company will contract an additional 4 million by october 31 1961 in the management's opinion the loan credit available in combination with indicated working capital and increased cash flow antici pated in the months ahead will be sufficient to carry out the presently ap proved capital expenditure program for 1961 the easing of interest rates and the improved availability of money may make it desirable to refund our debt on a longer term basis to make possible a more rapid rate of future expansion the growth in shareholders equity or net worth continued to in crease during 1960 reaching a total of 51,358,267 as compared with 44,748,041 at the end of 1959 or a gain of 14.8 per cent in terms of book value per share of common stock the figure rose from 21.62 to 24.81 consolidated depreciation and amortization charges against the income of the parent company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries only amounted to 6,112,814 in 1960 as compared with 5,209,033 in 1959 in both years accelerated depreciation methods were used earnings per common share 1951 1952 1953 employees for many years it has been company policy to provide a liberal program of benefits to employees in addition to compensation in the form of medical hospital and life insurance and in anticipation of retirement from company service a retirement fund based on profit sharing periodically over the years as improvements have been conceived these plans have been modified and expanded to provide additional protection and benefits in 1960 the retirement plan was so amended to establish a voluntary employees savings plan which will offer employee members the same professionally managed investment counsel conditions for their savings deposits as apply to the company-sponsored retirement plan proper in the area of labor and union relations 1960 marked a continuation of the harmonious relations that have existed in past years between the com pany and the unions concerned in the industries in which the company is involved new labor agreements were written during the year with a number of crafts and groups concerned with construction dredging and diversified mining operations of the numerous separate negotiations which were initi ated and completed on mutually satisfactory terms only one involved a work stoppage and that was limited to two weeks with profound sadness and sorrow we report the loss by accidental death of two friends and key executives on january 13 1960 james anthony mecia vice president and homer a mann director of mining services this tragedy occurred while they were travelling on a company-owned aircraft which crashed and burned near cedar city utah