Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Monday, April 28, 1997
The State of Hawaii is promoting a trade mission to Japan for late May, aimed at matching Japanese investors with island ventures. State to lead mission
for Japan investorsThe Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism said it is coordinating the May 27-30 mission with the Japan External Trade Organization. Part of the trip will include the Hawaii group's participation in a JETRO Investment Promotion Fair in Tokyo.
Time is short, however. DBEDT said the deadline to sign up is Thursday. Interested Hawaii businesses must offer investment packages worth at least $500,000 that will create jobs. The businesses also must prepare all of their promotional materials in Japanese.
The contact telephone number at DBEDT is 587-2766.
Hawaii's biggest financial corporation is now Pacific Century Financial Corp., following Friday's shareholder approval of the name change from Bancorp Hawaii Inc. Bancorp shareholders
approve name changeThe parent of Bank of Hawaii, First Federal Savings & Loan Association of America and other banking, savings and trust companies in Hawaii, the Pacific and the mainland, continues to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the same symbol, BOH. The company said shareholders need not surrender their Bancorp Hawaii stock certificates.
SEATTLE -- Boeing Co.'s first-quarter profit tripled on more commercial airplane deliveries and profits from its new defense and space units, the company said today. Boeing's net triples;
analysts disappointedBoeing reported $377 million in profit or $1.09 a share, up from $119 million or 35 cents a share a year earlier. Revenues climbed 70 percent, to $7.3 billion from $4.3 billion a year ago.
But the results included a $64 million gain tied to stock held in a trust account for employees. Not counting the gain, the company earned $313 million, or 87 cents per share.
Boeing was expected to earn $1 a share without the one-time gain, according to the average of 12 estimates from IBES International Inc., Bloomberg News reported.
"We're seeing the costs of ramping up production, " said Bill Whitlow, a fund manager at Safeco Corp., whose Northwest Fund has about 5 percent of its $45 million invested in Boeing.
WASHINGTON -- New homes sold briskly in March for the third straight month, down only slightly from the month before when sales hit the highest level in 11 years. Sales of new homes
still going strongNew homes sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 813,000 last month, a 2.5 percent decline from a rate of 834,000 in February that was the highest since April 1986, the Commerce Department said today. The sales pace was 825,000 in January. It is the first time since 1978 that sales have topped the 800,000 level three times in a row.
In advance, many economists were looking for a less torrid sales pace of about 790,000 in March. Also, the department substantially raised February and January sales from previous estimates.
The changes left the annual sales pace for the first quarter 8 percent higher than the fourth quarter. Strong sales reduced the inventory of unsold homes at the end of March to 297,000, the lowest in nearly three years.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Microsoft Corp. said today its Softimage Inc. unit has agreed to work with Nintendo Co. to work Softimage 3D technology into video games. Financial terms were not disclosed. Microsoft's Softimage
to work with NintendoSoftimage develops software for video, film, interactive games and CD-ROM applications.
The two companies will work to integrate Softimage's special-effects software into Nintendo products, ultimately making it easier for third parties to develop games for Nintendo's new 64-bit game machine, Nintendo 64. Softimage 3D was used to create the character animation and other content for Nintendo 64's flagship game, Super Mario 64.