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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Tuesday, March 7, 2000

Hotel veteran picked to manage the Ilikai

Interstate Hotels Corp. has installed one of its former executives as general manager of the Interstate-managed Renaissance Ilikai Waikiki. Alan K. Cambra, a 30-year veteran of hotel management, most recently was president of Castle Hotels & Resorts in Hawaii. Before that he held the posts with Shoreline/Omni Hotels, CRS Corp., Mariner Corp. and, earlier, was vice president of operations for Interstate Hotels.

Pittsburgh-based Interstate, which manages 165 hotels in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Russia, has managed the 783-room Ilikai since new owners took it over last month.

The hotel is marketed under the Renaissance brand, part of Marriott International Inc., under a franchise deal.

Barnwell authorizes stock repurchase

Barnwell Industries Inc. said today its board of directors has authorized the company to buy up to 100,000 shares of its stock, when market conditions are right.

Morton H. Kinzler, chairman and chief executive of the Honolulu-based company, said the board has confidence in the company's long-term growth and believes the stock is undervalued.

Barnwell gained 62 cents to $14.56 today on the American Stock Exchange, a 52-week high. It hit a 52-week low of $9.75 on Oct. 6.

Barnwell's main business is oil and gas exploration in Canada, but it also has an interest in a Big Island resort. It has 1.3 million shares outstanding.

Home-care business expands to Kauai

Hawaii HealthCare Professionals Inc. has acquired a Lihue, Kauai, home-care nursing business, Hale Omao Health Services Agency, which will keep operating under its name as a subsidiary of Hawaii HealthCare.

Ben Aranio, founder of Hale Omao, had been looking for someone to take over so he could retire, the companies said. Hawaii HealthCare was founded in Honolulu in 1994 by health care professional Carolyn Frutoz, president and CEO, and expanded to Maui in 1998.

UPS plans to buy back shares from employees

ATLANTA -- United Parcel Service Inc. is spending nearly $4.1 billion of the $5.27 billion it made from its initial public offering last fall to buy back 68.3 million shares of employee-owned stock.

Under the terms of the buyback, each shareowner could tender up to 27 percent of his stock, up to 100.9 million shares, at $60 per share, the company announced yesterday.

UPS shares, which have traded as high as $76.94 on the New York Stock Exchange, fell $2.69 today to $50.06.

Vitria Technology stock to split two for one

NEW YORK -- Software maker Vitria Technology Inc. said today it will split its stock two shares for one. The split will double the number of shares to more than 126 million but halve their value. The company has about 63.2 million shares on average.

The new shares will be issued April 5. Vitria, based in Mountain View, Calif., makes so-called back-office software that allows companies to manage transactions and place orders over the Internet in real time.

Deutsche Bank looks to remain world's biggest

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Deutsche Bank AG, the world's largest banking company, said it is in talks about closer cooperation with Germany's third biggest bank, Dresdner Bank AG, amid speculation they were discussing a merger.

The banks declined to elaborate but their confirmation today of the talks fueled speculation that they were working on a merger that would create a banking company with more than $1.4 trillion in assets. Deutsche Bank alone is now the largest banking company in the world with $840 billion in assets.

Three Japanese banking giants Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, Fuji Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan agreed in August to merge by 2005, creating a bank with just over $1 trillion in assets.