Maui Land
earnings rebound

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Maui Land & Pineapple Co. had a fourth-quarter turnaround, reporting a profit of $3.4 million, or 47 cents a share, compared with a loss of $1.8 million, or 24 cents a share, in the final quarter of 1997.

The results in the latest quarter were boosted by a net gain of $2.4 million from the sale of a parcel of land at Kapalua, Maui. Higher results from pineapple and resort operations also helped, the company said yesterday.

The net boost in the latest quarter came in spite of a $744,000 after-tax cost from prepaying $20 million of debt.

Fourth-quarter revenues of $47.4 million were up 27.8 percent from $37.1 million in the year-earlier quarter.

The company's pineapple business, mostly growing and canning the fruit on Maui for wholesalers under a variety of brand names, had an operating profit of $4.1 million in the 1998 quarter, compared with an operating loss of $24,000 in the fourth quarter of 1997.

Sales volume and prices were both up and costs were down, the company said.

The company's resort segment produced a fourth-quarter operating profit of $2.8 million, compared with an operating loss of $1 million in the year-earlier quarter.

For all of 1998, the company had a net profit of $3.6 million, or 50 cents a share, up 317 percent from 1997's profit of $863,000, or 12 cents a share.

Full-year revenues of $143.7 million were up 5.3 percent from $136.5 million in 1997.