Lower Matson
income sinks
A&B earnings

Second-quarter profits
drop 13.2 percent as
real estate also falls

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Citing lower income from its Matson Navigation Co. subsidiary and a lack of the big real estate sales that marked its performance last year and early this year, Alexander & Baldwin Inc. yesterday reported a 13.2 percent dip in its second-quarter income, showing a profit of $24.5 million compared to $28.2 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Per-share income of 61 cents in the latest quarter was in line with A&B's projection in early June that its second-quarter profit would be 10 percent to 15 percent below that of 2000.

In the second quarter last year, A&B earned 69 cents a share.

"Although there were several large real estate sales in the first quarter of this year, second-quarter sales were lower than the first quarter and also below last year's second quarter," said W. Allen Doane, A&B president and chief executive officer. Offsetting that was an after-tax profit of $9.4 million in the latest quarter from the sale of A&B's shares in Bank of Hawaii parent company, Pacific Century Financial Co.

Second-quarter revenues of $294.2 million this year were up 1.7 percent from $289.2 million in the year-earlier quarter.

The second-quarter operating profit at Matson, A&B's largest subsidiary, fell 33 percent to $18.7 million in the latest quarter from $27.9 million in the year-earlier period.

Property leasing operating profits rose 14.1 percent to $8.7 million, from a year-earlier $7.6 million, but operating income from property sales fell 81.2 percent to $3.6 million from $18.9 million in the second quarter of 2000.

A&B's food products segment produced an operating profit of $747,000 in the latest quarter, a turnaround from a loss of $2 million in the 2000 quarter.

Honolulu-headquartered A&B had a first-half net profit of $46.9 million, down 14.1 percent from a net of $54.7 million in the first half of 2000. In the 2000 period, A&B had a non-cash income boost of $12.3 million from an accounting change.

A&B stock fell 33 cents to $24.86 in trading today.