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Verizon Hawaii Verizon Hawaii Inc., the state's largest telecommunications company, had a 29 percent increase in its third-quarter profit, due to reduced operating expenses and a one-time gain.
earnings jump 29%
Revenues were up just
$900,000 in the quarterBy Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin
The company reported to the Securities & Exchange Commission that it had a profit of $28.5 million in the latest quarter, compared with a profit of $22.1 million in the same period last year.
Revenues of $162.5 million in the latest quarter were up 0.6 percent from $161.6 million in the year-earlier period, according to the SEC filing, which was made public yesterday.
Formerly GTE Hawaiian Tel, Verizon Hawaii is a wholly owned subsidiary of New York-based Verizon Communications Inc. , the company formed when Bell Atlantic Corp. bought GTE Corp. for $75 billion in June. Although all its shares are owned by Verizon Communications, Verizon Hawaii still reports its results to the SEC.
For the third quarter ending Sept. 30, Verizon Hawaii did not break out the revenues from its various segments.
However spokesman Keith Kamisugi said the company benefited from a special gain associated with lump-sum pension settlements for employees who qualified. The company had a $23.6 million gain from the settlements over the first nine months of the year and some of that helped its third-quarter results.
The company also lowered its expenses for operations and support by 11.5 percent, to $80.1 million in the latest quarter from $90.5 million in the year-earlier period, the SEC filing said.
Verizon Hawaii reported net income of $73.5 million for the first nine months of 2000, down 1.6 percent from $74.7 million in the 1999 period. Kamisugi said the dip was because of an accounting change.
"Even though we were still able to achieve significant savings from lowering our operating costs, a change in the way we account for directory publishing resulted in a slightly lower net income" for the nine months, he said.
Local-services operating revenues were up 4.8 percent at $232.9 million for the first nine months of 2000, from $222.2 million in the same period last year. Network-access services, which is selling access to its Hawaii system to outside long-distance companies and other services, generated revenues of $129.1 million in the latest nine months, down 4.4 percent from $135.1 million a year earlier. The "other services" category - such as selling equipment to users, pay-phone service, and collecting fees for other companies - produced revenues of $117 million in the latest nine months, down 21.4 percent from a year-earlier $148.8 million.
Verizon Hawaii has roughly 2,800 employees and serves about 650,000 customers in Hawaii.
The parent company said in September that it plans to spend about $650 million in the next five years to upgrade its wireless network and international telecommunications connections.