Mr Forte to the rescue ? a scheme to unscramble the so-called Jasper group of companies may be announced before the end of this month . for some time now negotiations have been going on between the state building society and a group believed to be headed by Mr Charles Forte , the caterer . the basis of the talks have been , firstly , that the depositors of the state should at least be repaid 20 s in the pound , even if they may suffer some loss of interest , and secondly , that there should be an offer - on the basis of independent accountants &apos; valuations - for all the shares in all the group companies , whose stock exchange quotations have been suspended . altogether , the state has lent about &amp;pound;7 million to various companies in the group , but the chief problem is the &amp;pound;3 1/4 million borrowed by Friedrich Grunwald , its driving force , at present serving a five-year prison sentence . Grunwald also borrowed &amp;pound;1 1/2 million from Mr Maxwell Joseph , the hotelier , and it seems certain that a solution will depend on Mr Joseph foregoing a considerable part of this , as well as on Mr Grunwald and Herbert Murray ( formerly of the state building society , now also in prison ) surrendering the greater part of their own personal holdings in group companies . Mr Forte &apos;s interest in taking over the group plainly lies in the catering opportunities offered . among the group &apos;s assets are the Piccadilly , Rubens and Rembrandt hotels in London , as well as a number of provincial hotels . it also owns a number of news theatres and , among others , the Classic chain of repertory cinemas . finally , there are 43 billiard halls for which Mr Forte may well have other plans . but there is also a substantial property interest , above all the &amp;pound;4 million Dolphin Square block of flats . the scheme therefore hinges on finding a property group to take over this aspect of the Grunwald empire . more than one property company has already shown an interest in this , but a well-known &amp;pound;15 million London group specialising in residential property seems at present the most likely bet . things at last seem to be looking up for the thousands of long-suffering state building society depositors . even if the present scheme falls through - which now seems unlikely - there is a City merchant bank now waiting quietly on the sidelines with an alternative scheme in its pocket . new recruit . Mr Gerald Glover &apos;s election last week to the board of City of London real property provides an interesting link between one of the most active property development groups and a company whose immense possibilities has made eyes other than those of Mr Cotton and Mr Clore take a long , lingering , glance in its direction . among other things , Mr Glover is chairman of Edger investments , the development company whose latest achievement has been the Carlton Tower Hotel in Sloane Street , London . like many another property company it has attracted the backing of a leading insurance company - none other than the Prudential . perhaps even more important , however , for Edger is the backing it enjoys from development securities , which owns one-third of the equity . this company , whose principal asset is the Dorchester Hotel and whose shares have so far this year risen from 81 s to a new high of 110 s , is in turn controlled by the wealthy McAlpine family . until now the only connection between CLRP and the McAlpine-Glover interests lay in the vast Stag brewery site at Victoria , which is 51 p.c owned by CLRP , 25 p.c by development securities and 24 p.c by Edger . the new move should at least serve to boost the pace of developing this site , from which the &amp;pound;4 million Edger should - proportionately - benefit most . with a yield of little more than 1 p.c at the current price of 28 s 3 d the shares are essentially a long-term investment . but one which should prove rewarding . ICI &apos;s bad example . imperial chemical industries should certainly have no difficulty in finding underwriters for its next rights issue . as a result of its decision to revert to the bad old practice , gradually being rejected by the more progressive companies , of letting the underwriters get the benefit of the rights inadvertently not taken up - in this case nearly 3 per cent of the &amp;pound;34 million issue - there has been an underwriting bonus of no less than &amp;pound;280,000 . it is of course true , as Mr Paul Chambers , the ICI chairman , has pointed out , that at the time of the issue the rights were worth only 9 d a share , and that if the shares not taken up were to be sold for the benefit of the shareholders whose rights they were - the normal modern practice - this would involve considerable administrative work . but this is a matter of principle . underwriters are adequately recompensed for the services they perform without the necessity of a pourboire at the expense of innocently negligent - or merely absent - shareholders . ICI should be setting a better example than this . forward strip . what tax changes are likely in this month &apos;s budget ? one innovation the government has been seriously considering - and which may yet come about - is the introduction of a flat rate corporation tax to replace the present combination of income tax and profits tax on company profits . this would have the obvious merit of recognising the important difference between company and personal taxation . it would also , I believe , be welcomed by the inland revenue ( normally averse to any major change ) as a means of helping them in their endless battle against the dividend strippers . for those few readers unacquainted with this sport I should perhaps explain that dividend stripping is essentially a device for extracting accumulated reserves from a private trading company without paying tax . in its simplest form it used to work in the following way . the trading company with , say , &amp;pound;100,000 of reserves and &amp;pound;50,000 of other assets is sold to a finance company for &amp;pound;150,000 . the finance company then pays itself a dividend of &amp;pound;100,000 and sells the trading company back to its original owners for &amp;pound;50,000 . the latter are then left with the company plus &amp;pound;100,000 in cash - the object of the exercise . the finance company , however , whose business is dealing in shares and other property and is thus taxed on capital gains , can offset the &amp;pound;100,000 loss in buying and reselling the business against the dividend received . hence it , too , has no tax liability . revenue &apos;s chagrin . last year &apos;s finance act - in particular the blanket section 28 - was meant to have put a stop to all this . but although the crude method just outlined is no longer possible , a roaring trade is still being done - much to the revenue &apos;s chagrin - in some of the more esoteric refinements of dividend stripping . among them are the methods known among the professionals as the scissors , stock shunting and the forward strip . the first two are highly complex operations , usually used in property deals . the forward strip , however , was specially designed for those people who have not yet made their profits - actors , for example . here , a company is formed to exploit the actor &apos;s services over the next five years . in essence what happens is that the drop in value of the shares in this company ( at the end of the five years they are worthless ) is offset against the actor &apos;s earnings over the period . how many of our leading actors are anxiously waiting for April 17 to find out whether they will be able to continue their forward strip ? this week &apos;s dividends . Reyrolle : Phoenix . highlight of this week &apos;s dividend news will come from A Reyrolle , the big north-country electrical engineers who report on Friday . the difficulties through which the heavy electrical industry has passed in recent years are well enough known and they have n&apos;t left Reyrolle scatheless . these went further than a mere check to growth , and at one time brought trading profits down from the peak of &amp;pound;3,909,000 in 1955 by nearly &amp;pound;1 million . last year trading profits had climbed back to &amp;pound;3,134,000 , but the market is not particularly sanguine that 1960 will have seen much further recovery - profit margins were probably too slim for that . last year &apos;s agreement with associated electrical industries for joint research has probably not been in force long enough to bring big savings yet , but it should do so in time . meanwhile Reyrolle has never cut its dividend which has been held at the equivalent of 8 1/4 per cent on present capital for the past four years . earnings a year ago were 25 per cent . the interim has been maintained this year at 3 1/4 per cent and expectation is that the final will again be 5 1/2 per cent - anything more would please the market . the shares have risen in the past two months by about 7 s in line with other heavy electricals , on hopes that the industry has now passed its worst . chemicals prosperity . better profits are expected from associated chemical companies when the figures for 1960 are announced next Thursday . A.C.C , formerly British chrome &amp; chemicals , has expanded rapidly in recent years and is now a sizeable group controlling assets worth more than &amp;pound;11 million . trading profits have risen from about &amp;pound;250,000 to &amp;pound;1,345,000 in the past 10 years . last year &apos;s total distribution of 15 p.c came from earnings of 38 p.c so an increase is well within the company &apos;s powers especially as the cash position is good . on the other hand the directors may be conservative again because of expansion plans . a free scrip issue can not be ruled out . it must surely come some day with reserves and undistributed profits now totalling nearly &amp;pound;4 million by comparison with an issued equity capital of &amp;pound;2,154,000 . the last scrip issue was seven years ago . profits of Mitchells , Ashworth &amp; Stansfield , the Lancashire manufacturers , dyers and printers of felts who now have considerable interests in the carpet trades , are expected to be lower . this will have been caused by running-in troubles with their new plant . there can hardly be much fear , however , of a reduced distribution , so strong is the company &apos;s financial position . for several years past the company has added a 6 1/2 p.c tax free distribution from capital profits to its dividend . cash resources . a year ago the balance sheet disclosed cash and investments totalling nearly &amp;pound;800,000 by comparison with an issued capital which is still only &amp;pound;417,000 after the one-for-four scrip issue . two-thirds of the investments are in quoted stocks and some shareholders have been pressing for a return of capital . steps are in hand to repay the &amp;pound;119,000 of preference capital and interest in the company &apos;s report centres chiefly on what further moves will be made to distribute some of the surplus cash resources . the 5 s shares of Phoenix assurance have risen about 30 s this year and 50 s from the low point last year . this reflects market hopes that there will at last be an increase on the 100 p.c dividend maintained for the past six years , albeit with one tiny scrip issue of one-for-20 . nevertheless Phoenix shares at around 160 s still yield just over 3 p.c . this is high by comparison with the 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 p.c returns shown by such companies as equity law , general accident , legal &amp; general and eagle star . but after the no change shock from legal and general it would be as well not to expect much . Italy seeks firms from Britain . Italy is actively looking for British firms wishing to start manufacturing within the common market . already Inbucon , a British firm of business consultants has been engaged by Finmeccanica , the large holding company , to look for suitable candidates . Finmeccanica has substantial interests in Alfa-Romeo and Ansaldo , the important Genoa shipyard . it is offering to finance wholly or in part new British manufacturing ventures in Italy . Finmeccanica is itself owned by the vast semi-autonomous government agency , the institute for industrial reconstruction ( I.R.I ) ; which has majority shareholdings in a large number of Italian heavy industrial concerns , public utilities and banks . no future for small atomic reactors ? news that Hawker Siddeley is withdrawing from the nuclear power business has confirmed the growing belief that the making of small atomic reactors has a long way to go before it becomes a commercial proposition . 