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Mainland firm
buys Grand Pacific
Life Insurance
The local firm, founded four
By Russ Lynch
decades ago by Hiram Fong
and others, has suffered in
Hawaii's stagnant economy
Star-BulletinGrand Pacific Life Insurance Co., whose founders in 1957 included Republican politicians Hiram L. Fong and Wadsworth Yee and its current chairman, Daniel Lau, has been sold to a corporation registered in Delaware, GPL Holdings Inc.
The sale price was not disclosed.
The sale, subject to the approval of Grand Pacific shareholders and the state insurance commissioner, is to experienced insurance executives, a Grand Pacific statement said.
The principals of GPL Holdings are Delos H. Yancey Jr. and Rodney L. Hale of Atlanta.
Yancey said the purchase will give his group a strategic presence in the mid-Pacific and allow access to the mainland, Pacific and Asian markets.
"We don't expect any changes," said Grand Pacific marketing executive Maureen Lichter.
The company said the transition should be seamless and should not affect employees, customers or the public. Grand Pacific said it will stay in business at its present location in the 1164 Bishop St. building and will keep its name.
The company has been hurt by Hawaii's stale economy of the 1990s and has slipped to 24 employees, from 55 in the middle of the last decade.
It had assets of $144 million at the end of 1999, down from $156 million in 1998 and $170 million in 1997.
Grand Pacific was approached in July by a would-be purchaser who turned out to be fugitive financier Martin Frankel. Coincidentally yesterday, the day Grand Pacific announced its new ownership deal, Frankel pleaded guilty in a German court to charges of smuggling diamonds.
