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Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Monday, August 21, 2000
Barnwell reinstates cash dividend
Barnwell Industries Inc. said today it will issue a cash dividend of 10 cents a share for shareholders of record Sept. 1, payable Sept. 18. The Honolulu-based oil and gas exploration company has not paid dividends since 1995, when it last issued a 7 cents a share payment. The company does most of its business in Canada, but also has an interest in a Kona land-development venture. Earlier this month, Barnwell reported a sevenfold increase in quarterly earnings.
Air Canada facing Labor Day strike
TORONTO -- Talks between Air Canada and its pilots have broken down again, opening the possibility of a Labor Day weekend strike of Canada's dominant airline. It would be the second such strike in three years. A 13-day strike that began on Labor Day weekend 1998 cost the airline more than $100 million. Since then, Air Canada has survived a hostile takeover bid and swallowed up rival Canadian Airlines to control the local industry.Another strike would mean chaos on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year, a time when thousands of people return home from summer holidays or plan a final short trip over the three-day break.
The contract for the 2,200 Air Canada pilots expired in April and a series of negotiations have failed to make progress.
The latest round broke down Friday, with a labor lawyer concluding that the two sides were too far apart to reach an agreement. Both sides say they will wait until Aug. 29 before announcing their intentions. Possibilities include further talks, a strike or a lockout by the airline.
In other news . . .
DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. will halt production at three truck plants for more than a week to free up 70,000 tires for use as replacements in a recall of 6.5 million Firestone tires.
Of Mutual Concern
News for mutual fund investors
Legg Mason's Miller trims tech, buys Kodak
BALTIMORE -- Bill Miller, whose Legg Mason Value Trust was the only mutual fund to beat the Standard & Poor's 500 index every year from 1991, sold technology shares, anticipating slowing earnings, and has added Eastman Kodak Co. Underscoring a warier outlook on Internet shares, Miller also replaced Amazon.com Inc. stock with convertible bonds of the Web retailer in his newer fund, the Legg Mason Opportunity Trust. Such securities pay a coupon and can be swapped into shares of the company. In the second-quarter report for Legg Mason Value Trust, Miller said earnings warnings by leading tech firms could mean trouble for other firms in the telecommunications, software and semiconductor industries. Miller cut the fund's tech's holdings to about 24 percent of its assets. The fund had 29 percent in tech as of March 31.