Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Wednesday, July 23, 1997

S&P lowers outlook
on Wahiawa hospital bonds

Standard & Poor's today lowered its outlook on $15 million in bonds for Wahiawa General Hospital from stable to negative.

But the bond rating company also affirmed its triple-'B'-minus rating for the special purpose mortgage bonds that were issued by the state Department of Budget & Finance for the hospital.

A negative outlook is not a downgrade but means that S&P may lower the rating if operations don't improve next year.

Standard & Poors said the outlook change reflects declining operating performance over the past two years, weakening debt-service coverage and declining patient traffic. Factors supporting the investment-grade rating include the hospital's good liquidity and limited competition within Wahiawa's primary service area.

Wahiawa General operates a 69-bed acute care facility.

Heco plans big rebate
for downtown building

The Alii Place building in downtown was scheduled to receive a $75,887 rebate from the Hawaiian Electric Co. tomorrow as part of the utility's cash-incentive program for companies to become more energy efficient.

Alii Place, managed by Beta West Inc., installed lighting that will save tenants about $150,000 a year in lower electricity rates, Heco said. The rebate is the biggest that Heco has awarded for energy-saving lighting in its commercial and industrial energy efficiency program.

Heco has paid out $1.3 million in cash incentives since starting the drive in June 1996.

Time Warner, Fox
end feud over cable channel

NEW YORK -- Time Warner Inc. said it will carry News Corp.'s Fox News channel on its New York City cable-television system, ending a year-long battle by Fox to gain access to the nation's largest cable market.

The settlement is part of a broader arrangement that would give News Corp. access to about 65 percent of Time Warner's U.S. cable systems for four years, Bloomberg News reported. Time Warner, in turn, may get access to News Corp.'s satellite-TV systems in markets such as Latin America for Home Box Office and its other networks.

Settling the dispute, which pitted News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch against Time Warner Chairman Gerald Levin and Vice Chairman Ted Turner, signals that the media chiefs realize they must work together, analysts said. Securing distribution for programming, whether by satellites or cable lines, has is extremely competitive and can make or break a network.

Continental Air's net
descends 23 percent

HOUSTON -- Continental Airlines Inc. said its second quarter earnings declined 23 percent, reflecting in part the reimposition of a federal ticket tax on domestic flights.

The Houston-based carrier said yesterday that net income was $128 million, or $2.01 a share, compared with $167 million, or $2.53 a share, a year ago. Revenues were $1.79 billion, up from $1.64 billion a year earlier.