Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Thursday, March 12, 1998
Kauai Electric's parent reports strong profit
Citizens Utilities Co., the Stamford, Conn.-based parent of Kauai Electric Co., today reported a 67 percent increase in its fourth-quarter profit to $80 million, from $48 million in the final quarter of 1996.Per-share earnings of 32 cents were up 69 percent from 19 cents in the year-earlier quarter and fourth-quarter revenues of $379 million were up 12 percent from $339 million in the 1996 quarter.
Most of the gain in the latest quarter was due to a one-time profit of $51 million after taxes from the sale of a minority interest in a subsidiary, Electric Lightwave Inc.
American Hawaii offers incentives for cruises
American Hawaii Cruises is offering low mainland-Hawaii air fares or substantial discounts to customers booking seven-day, around-the-islands cruises in May and June.The company offers a choice of a $99 round-trip fare from Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle or Portland or a $200 discount per person for cruises leaving Honolulu May 9, 23 and 30 and June 20.
Fares start at $1,780 per person based on double occupancy. The cruise operator is a subsidiary of Chicago-based American Classic Voyages Inc.
Safeway's chairman plans to step down
PLEASANTON, Calif. - Peter Magowan plans to resign as chairman of supermarket giant Safeway Inc. in May and turn the position over to company President Steve Burd.Magowan, 55, has chaired the 75-year-old company since 1980. He ended day-to-day management of Safeway in 1993 to become president and managing partner of the San Francisco Giants.
The resignation will become effective at the company's annual shareholders meeting May 12. Magowan, a descendant of Safeway's founders, will remain a director of the company.
Burd, 48, president of Safeway since 1992 and chief executive since 1993, is known as a cost-cutter and tough labor negotiator.
Under his leadership, Safeway last year acquired 325 Vons stores in Southern California, opened 133 new stores and remodeled 546 stores. In Hawaii, the company has 18 grocery stores.
Thirty-year mortgages fall to 7.16 percent
WASHINGTON - The average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage decreased to 7.16 percent this week compared with last week's 7.19 percent, according to a weekly survey by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.The report also showed that the average rate on an adjustable mortgage was unchanged at 5.70 percent, and 15-year mortgage rates fell to 6.78 percent from 6.80 percent.
U.S. trade deficit rose to $166 billion in '97
WASHINGTON - America's deficit in the broadest measure of foreign trade jumped to $166.4 billion last year, the second worst showing ever, as the deficit for the final quarter of the year climbed to the highest level in history.The Commerce Department said the 1997 deficit in the current account, which covers trade in merchandise, services and investments, rose by 12.3 percent from a 1996 imbalance of $148.2 billion.
Most economists are forecasting that the deficits will rise further this year as the Asian financial crisis cuts into American exports to the region and at the same time boosts sales of Asian products in the United States.
The 1997 deficit has been surpassed only once, by a $168.1 billion all-time high set in 1987, a year when U.S. manufacturers were battered by foreign competitors.
Feds not likely to block Windows 98 - report
NEW YORK - The Justice Department likely will not stop Microsoft Corp. from releasing its Windows 98 software with an Internet browser, the Wall Street Journal reported today.Instead, the department's antitrust enforcers are expected to ask U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to require Microsoft to also offer a Windows 98 version without Internet software, the Journal reported, citing sources close to the case.
Microsoft already faces a Justice Department lawsuit alleging it violated a 1995 court order designed to prevent anti-competitive conduct. Department investigators are gathering evidence for a wider antitrust case against the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant, the newspaper said.
Justice lawyers say Microsoft has leveraged its dominance to gain market share for its Internet browsers, which navigate around the World Wide Web.