C. Brewer Homes
loses $533,000
The company faces delisting
By Russ Lynch
by the Nasdaq market
Star-Bulletin
C. Brewer Homes Inc., facing a possible delisting by the Nasdaq stock market because of the low market value of its shares, had a net loss of $533,000 in the quarter ending Sept. 30.
The loss, for the second quarter of Wailuku-based C. Brewer's fiscal year, was nearly six times the loss of $94,000 reported for the same period last year.
The latest period's red ink was worsened by a $366,000 after-tax charge required by accounting standards. The company had to downgrade the value of its Kaimana housing development on Maui.
Not counting such special charges, C. Brewer had a loss of $167,000 in the latest quarter, compared with a loss of $94,000 in the 1997 quarter. Sales dropped to $2.6 million in the latest quarter from $6.1 million in the year-earlier period.
C. Brewer's shares, which have traded recently at prices low enough for Nasdaq to step in and require some changes, took a dive yesterday before the earnings report was released.
The stock slipped 15.6 cents to close at 25 cents a share yesterday, down 38 percent from its Friday close of 40.6 cents. Trading was delayed today. But after opening in early afternoon on Wall Street, C. Brewer's stock closed up 121/2 cents at 371/2 cents.
C. Brewer disclosed in a recent Securities & Exchange Commission filing that it had received a Nasdaq notice that its stock no longer met the exchange's market value requirements and setting a Nov. 24 deadline. The company said it was told that if it doesn't improve its value by then, it will be delisted.
A Nasdaq spokesman, Scott Peterson, said communications between the exchange and the companies it lists are private so he could not comment.
Seth Bakes, C. Brewer president, could not be reached for comment today. In its report, the company said it is looking into ways of improving its financial position, such as refinancing its debt or selling major assets or the company itself.
Unlike Hawaii's other publicly held home builders, Schuler Homes Inc. and Castle & Cooke Inc., C. Brewer has no operations on the mainland, where the economy is booming, to balance its losses in Hawaii's depressed market.
