Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Friday, November 6, 1998
Aston Hotels & Resorts' parent, ResortQuest International Inc., showed an 11.1 percent increase in third-quarter profit, when comparing the performance of the businesses the company had in September with their performance in the year-earlier quarter. Aston parent's
net up 11.1%The company reported a pro forma net profit of $1.7 million, or 11 cents a share, for the quarter ending Sept. 30, up from a comparable net of $1.5 million, or 10 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter.
Revenues of $16.9 million in the latest quarter were up 22 percent from revenues of $13.9 million in the 1997 quarter.
The results do not include the performance of Abbott Resorts Inc. in Destin, Fla., which was acquired Sept. 30.
Memphis, Tenn.-based ResortQuest said revenues per available unit in the Hawaii properties were off 3.5 percent compared with the equivalent quarter last year, because of the Northwest Airlines Corp. strike and a fall-off in travelers from Asia.
Established by a mainland company with an initial public offering of stock in May to combine Aston and 13 other vacation companies, ResortQuest operates vacation homes and resort condominiums in Hawaii, Colorado, Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Utah and British Columbia.
ResortQuest paid $29.5 million for Aston, which manages about 30 properties.
Isle sales by check flat in October
Retail sales in Hawaii in October, as measured by purchases with checks, were virtually flat in October, up only 0.6 percent from the level of October 1997, according to TeleCheck Services Inc.TeleCheck, a check-verification company, compares same-store sales at a cross-section of the retail businesses across the country. By its measure, retail sales nationally were up 2.3 percent from October 1997.
Safeway to replace Chrysler in S&P 500
PLEASANTON, Calif. -- Shares of Safeway Inc. rose sharply today after its selection to replace Chrysler Corp. in the Standard & Poor's 500 index. The Pleasanton, Calif.-based grocer will replace Chrysler effective with the close of trading on Nov. 12, when the No. 3 U.S. automaker completes its merger with Germany's Daimler-Benz AG.Safeway shares were up $2.81 at $50 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Safeway operates 1,381 food and drug stores in the United States and Canada.
Joining the index helped boost the stock because the most popular index mutual funds invest in the S&P 500.
American Air plans to scale back
FORT WORTH, Texas -- AMR Corp., parent of American Airlines, plans to retire 10 planes earlier than expected next year and delay new service on some routes because of slowing demand. The airline will take eight DC-10-10s and two Boeing 727-200s out of service several years earlier than planned. It also will delay new service between U.S. cities and Moscow, Paraguay and Tokyo.
In other news . . .
Shares in Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming Corp. soared today after a Wall Street analyst rated the stock as a "buy." William Trent of JWGenesis Capital Markets gave a target price of $7 for the stock, which today rose $1 to end at $4.06.
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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