Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Monday, July 7, 1997

Isle home building up
11 percent in 1996

Hawaii was ninth from last among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in the number of new housing units developed last year, according to Census Bureau figures issued today.

The figures show that 433 homes were built in Hawaii last year, an increase of 11.1 percent over 1995. Lowest on the list was Wyoming, with 209 new units.

However, in the percentage rate of growth, Hawaii was beaten by only 10 states. Nevada had the highest housing rate of growth in the country, 31.9 percent. The District of Columbia was at the bottom of growth-rate list, with a drop of 3.6 percent since 1995.

Maui Land & Pine
sells 50% of Kapalua site

Maui Land & Pineapple Co. has sold a 50 percent interest in a 12-acre, oceanfront site in Kapalua to Yarmouth Capital Partners II for $4.5 million.

Kapalua Land Co., a unit of Maui Land & Pine, will co-develop the parcel with Yarmouth, which acquired the nearby, 194-room Kapalua Bay Hotel for $19 million last year.

The new partnership, named Coconut Grove LLC, is looking at building low-density, upscale condominiums at the property, said Linn Nishikawa, Kapalua Land's spokeswoman. The project is part of Maui Land & Pine's master plan for the 1,650-acre Kapalua area.

MCI, British Telecom deal clears hurdle

WASHINGTON -- British Telecommunications Plc's proposed $25 billion acquisition of MCI Communications Corp. won antitrust clearance today from the Justice Department, Bloomberg News reported.

The department's finding that the acquisition doesn't violate U.S. antitrust laws brings the two companies a step closer to forming the world's fourth-largest telephone company, which will be known as Concert. Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, of Japan, is the largest, followed by AT&T Corp., and Germany's Deutsche Telekom.

Approval of the Federal Communications Commission is the last remaining regulatory hurdle. The European Union approved the merger in May, and BT and MCI shareholders also signed off.

Gold prices tumble to
Dec. 1985 levels

NEW YORK -- Gold fell to lows last seen in the 1980s as investors decided financial assets such as stocks and bonds represent a better store of value in an era of tame inflation, Bloomberg News reported.

"With virtually no inflation, you don't have to own as much as you used to," said Vernon Winters, chief investment officer at Mellon Private Asset Management in Pittsburgh, which oversees $32 billion. He said gold prices could fall as low $280 an ounce from $319 today.

That's bad news for gold producers, many of which can't make a profit even at today's prices. Small wonder then that gold shares worldwide plunged, dragging down stock markets in South Africa, Canada and Australia.

Gold for August delivery fell $6.20 an ounce to $319 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its lowest since December 1985.

"It's like the Emperor's clothes," said Steve Briggs, an analyst at South African stockbrokers E.W. Balderson. "Once you question its mystic value, you see it has no value at all. It's becoming a barbarous relic."