Mesa reaches deal to retire notes

Mesa Air Group Inc., parent of interisland carrier go!, has reached an agreement with a major holder of its senior convertible notes due in 2024 to exchange $14.3 million of the notes for 13.6 million shares of the company's common stock.

The exchange is expected to close on or before Monday.

Once the deal is complete, $3.1 million of the notes will remain outstanding. Earlier this year, the company retired $83.7 million of the notes.

Mesa's shares jumped 12.9 percent, or 3.02 cents, to 26.5 cents.

Hotel feud extends to Philippines

Filipino labor unions picketed yesterday the Makati City, Philippines, headquarters of Sun Life Financial, a primary investor of the Pacific Beach Hotel in Honolulu.

A labor boycott of the Pacific Beach Hotel has been ongoing following the owner's refusal to recognize the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 142, in 2007 and for laying off 32 workers. Word of the boycott, which has been sanctioned by the Hawaii labor federation, and the national labor federations of both the United States (AFL-CIO) and Japan (RENGO), has now spread to three unions in the Philippines.

Since the majority of employees at the Pacific Beach Hotel are Filipino, they appealed for support from their home country. The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, the Federation of Free Workers and the Alliance of Independent Hotel and Restaurant Workers Unions have asked Filipinos to support the boycott.

New Tetris titles, alliance in the works

Honolulu-based Tetris Online Inc. and New Jersey-based Majesco Entertainment Co. have announced a partnership in which Majesco will develop two new Tetris titles for the Nintendo Wii, DS and DSi systems for retail distribution. Tetris Online currently distributes its games digitally.

The new titles Majesco is developing will “;be an extension of the Tetris Party game previously released on Wii Ware,”; said Casey Pelkey, Tetris Online vice president of marketing.

The titles are due for release in the spring.

Tony Hawaii files case against Cutter

Tony Hawaii Corp. of Waipahu has filed an involuntary Chapter 7 liquidation petition against CJW Motors Inc. over approximately $252,000 in back rents and damages.

Tony Hawaii is seeking the unpaid rent for the sublease of space for CJW Motors' Cutter Mitsubishi in Aiea, which was closed and combined with Cutter Ford Mitsubishi just down the street.

CJW Motors, which also does business as Hawaii Mitsubishi, is a company led by Nick Cutter of Cutter Hawaii.

Isle hotels fare well in T + L rankings

The Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa and the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa on Maui are Nos. 3 and 7 in the Travel + Leisure magazine top-10 ranking of the “;World's Best Hotels and Cruises for Families.”;

The magazine uses its annual reader survey to generate several lists in which Hawaii properties generally do well, including this ranking of the best U.S. and Canadian hotels for families.

Sears Holdings loses $94M

Sears Holding Corp., the parent of Sears and Kmart stores took another step backward and posted a surprising second-quarter loss.

The company lost $94 million, its third loss in six quarters, and sales careened 10 percent to $10.55 billion. That compares with a profit of $65 million a year ago when revenue was $11.76 billion.

Mortgage rates lowest since May

McLEAN, Va. » Average rates on 30-year mortgages slid to the lowest levels since May this week, Freddie Mac said.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 5.12 percent, down from 5.29 percent last week. At this time last year, the average rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages was 6.47 percent.

The last time rates for 30-year mortgages were this low was the week of May 28, when they were 4.91 percent.

The average rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage was 4.56 percent, down from 4.68 percent last week.

Rates on one-year, adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 4.69 percent from 4.72 percent.

ON THE MOVE

Dawn Matsuyama Dunbar has been named executive director of the new nonprofit After-School All-Stars Hawaii, which was started in Hawaii's middle schools this year. Named to the founding board of directors were former Gov. Ben Cayetano; Maya Soetoro-Ng, educator; Jim Donovan, University of Hawaii at Manoa athletic director; Lori Abe, McNeil Wilson Communications; Brett Brewer (board chair), AdKnowledge; Winston Chow, First Hawaiian Bank; Greg Dickhens, Kyo-ya; AJ Halagao, Westlaw Hawaii; Bert A. Kobayashi, Kobayashi Group LLC; Richanne Lam, Morgan Stanley; Jim Polk, Bank of Hawaii; Brett Seitman, It's All About Kids; Toby Taniguchi, KTA Superstores; Jeffrey Watanabe, counsel; Lynn Watanabe, community volunteer; and Aubrey Yee, Pacific-Home.