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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Monday, October 16, 2000

Booklines Hawaii acquires company

Booklines Hawaii, a leading local book wholesaler, said it has bought the assets of Pacific Sports Network, a Honolulu wholesale distributor of water-sports, fishing and camping equipment.

Jeff Swartz, Booklines' president, said the Pacific Sports Network products will now be sold through Maui Pacific Traders, a company that Booklines acquired earlier this year and moved to Oahu. The latest acquisition will bring Booklines Hawaii's revenues to more than $16.5 million this year, Swartz said. Maui Pacific Traders operates as an independent business but shares accounting and other office functions with Booklines. Both companies are based in Waipio Gentry Business Park.

CSX Lines adds ship to isle service

CSX Lines, one of two major shippers serving Hawaii, said today it will add an eighth ship to boost cargo service between here and the West Coast. The company, formerly Sea-Land Service, said the new vessel will start service Oct. 25 and sail every two weeks, with stops in Long Beach, Honolulu and Tacoma, Wash.

Hawaii's other major shipper, Matson Navigation Co., last week also announced it was adding an eight vessel to its Hawaii fleet. Both companies cited an improving Hawaii economy, which has resulted in greater demand for cargo shipments. The new CSX service will offer shipments leaving Southern California midweek and arriving in Honolulu on Sundays. The vessel will then sail to Tacoma before returning to Long Beach to start the triangle route again. With the new service, CSX will have three Honolulu arrivals every other week, the company said.

Verizon, Vodafone delay wireless IPO

NEW YORK -- Local telephone company Verizon Communications and British wireless giant Vodafone Group Plc said today they delayed their $5 billion initial public offering of Verizon Wireless due to the recent market volatility. Verizon Wireless, the No. 1 U.S. wireless telephone company, valued by analysts at more than $80 billion, had planned to launch an initial public offering later this year.

Cheap Tickets signs deal with DoubleClick

Honolulu-based Cheap Tickets Inc. said today it expects to attract many new users to its Web site through a new arrangement with DoubleClick Inc.

The DoubleClick Network of Web sites will carry links to www.cheaptickets.com and, under the "strategic alliance," New York-based DoubleClick will use other online marketing and advertising initiatives to promote Cheap Tickets.

Analyst's report rattles Intel stock

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Shares of Intel Corp., which said last month that third-quarter sales would miss its targets, fell more than 10 percent after an analyst said demand is weaker than anticipated.

Intel fell $4.27 to $36.11 in midday Nasdaq trading after Salomon Smith Barney Inc. analyst Jonathan Joseph told investors in a report that the world's biggest computer-chip maker faces weaker demand at a time it's adding capacity. Volume of 45 million led U.S. markets.

Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., is due to issue its earnings Tuesday after regular U.S. trading ends. Profit is expected to rise to 38 cents a share, the average analyst estimate in a First Call/Thomson Financial survey.

Intel earned a split-adjusted 28 cents a year earlier. Sales are forecast to rise 18 percent to $8.64 billion from $7.33 billion.

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Of Mutual Concern

News for mutual fund investors

PaineWebber to use outside managers

NEW YORK -- Facing lagging investment returns and heavy cash outflows, investment banker PaineWebber Group Inc. unveiled plans to use outside managers to run more than half of its proprietary mutual funds.

Management of all but five equity funds -- the PaineWebber Strategy, Tactical Allocation, Financial Services Growth, Enhanced S&P 500 and Enhanced Nasdaq 100 funds -- will be outsourced.

A total of 38 open-end and closed-end funds, including both equity and fixed-income funds, will be affected, said Brian Storms, president and chief executive of the New York-based brokerage's Mitchell Hutchins asset management unit.

Spokeswoman Denise Kazmier later said that the figure also included some variable annuities, offshore funds and other asset management products.

She said that 19 of PaineWebber's 25 long-term, open-end funds would be run by outside managers, including Alliance Capital Management, State Street Global Advisors and Goldman Sachs Group.

Only one of the funds being outsourced, High Yield Plus, will be sub-advised by a unit of UBSA, the Swiss bank that has agreed to acquire PaineWebber.

Many of the outside firms being tapped as subadvisers already manage money for PaineWebber's wealthier clients in separate accounts.

Record amount pours out of equity mutual funds

NEW YORK -- Equity funds lost a record $10 billion in net outflows in the three business days ended Thursday, as earnings worries at home and political turmoil abroad sent U.S. investors running for cover, according to TrimTabs.com Investment Research.

Funds that invest in U.S. stocks suffered the bulk of the outflows at $9.5 billion, while international stock funds had $500 million in net outflows. Most of the new cash came out of growth mutual funds, which lost a net $4.8 billion.

Neuberger Berman to acquire Fasciano

NEW YORK -- Neuberger Berman Inc. said it plans to acquire Fasciano Co., the investment adviser to the Fasciano Fund, a small-capitalization blend mutual fund. The fund, launched by Michael Fasciano in 1987, has approximately $240 million in assets. Terms of the planned acquisition weren't disclosed.

"We were looking for a fund to round out Neuberger Berman's line of small-cap offerings," said Peter Sundman, executive vice president of Neuberger Berman.