Fuji Photo Film Hawaii purchases Waipahu lot

A&B Properties has sold a three-acre lot in its Mill Town Business Center in Waipahu to Fuji Photo Film Hawaii Inc., where Fuji intends to set up a 55,000-square-foot building for a film processing center. The center will replace the one at 1650 Kalakaua Ave. in Waikiki.

The building will also house Fuji's local administrative offices, which have also been at the Waikiki location, and its distribution center, currently in Halawa Valley.

A&B Properties, the real estate management development and management subsidiary of Alexander & Baldwin Inc., acquired a 40-acre property near the old Waipahu Sugar Mill in 1998 and has been developing it into a business center with light-industrial and warehouse tenants.

Terms of the Fuji transaction were not disclosed.

United cuts jet deliveries for 2002 and 2003

NEW YORK >> United Airlines, the nation's second largest carrier, said yesterday that it had scaled back its new aircraft deliveries through 2003, joining other major airlines in cutting costs to counter the sharp drop in travel after September's attacks.

Chicago-based United Airlines, a unit of UAL Corp., said it will take delivery of only 24 of the 49 aircraft scheduled for next year and none of the 18 aircraft it had planned for delivery in 2003.

The airline believes it will reduce its outlay costs for aircraft by $2.5 billion during 2002 and 2003. A United Airlines spokesman would not confirm which of the 43 deferred deliveries related to orders from rival manufacturers Boeing Co. and Airbus. United said it still plans to take all 43 new aircraft scheduled for this year most of which were delivered before September.

"That's pretty pessimistic in terms of what they think is going to happen for recovery," said Richard Gritta, an airline finance specialist at the University of Portland.

"They seem to be indicating they expect troubles in the industry for more than a year certainly," he said.

Lucent fiber optics unit sold for reduced price

MURRAY HILL, N.J. >> Lucent Technologies Inc. said yesterday it has completed the sale of its fiber optics business to Japan's Furukawa Electric Co. and its U.S.-based partner CommScope Inc. for $2.3 billion, slightly less than an earlier offer.

The companies had said Thursday that they had negotiated a slightly lower purchase price than the prior $2.5 billion offer. The deal makes Furukawa the world's second-largest producer of fiber optics, behind Corning Inc.