Waipahu Town Center sold for $15 million

A California investor with ties to Hawaii is expected to close on the $15 million purchase of the 2.75-acre Waipahu Town Center in the next few days.

Gary Pinkston, who previously owned and managed Windward Mall and the Koko Marina Shopping Center, owns Tiburon, Calif.-based real estate firm Meridian Pacific Ltd.

Honolulu-based Avalon Group advised Pinkston and seller Gabrielsen & Co. in the deal. The lender is Central Pacific Bank.

Pinkston plans minor renovations to the building and parking lot, and will add tenants to the center, including a 20,000-square-foot 99-cent Marukai store.

The town center is the last Hawaii property of San Rafael, Calif.-based Gabrielsen, which sold the leasehold Kaneohe Bay Shopping Center last year to Alexander & Baldwin Inc.

LVMH sales up overall but down in Hawaii

PARIS >> DFS Hawaii owner LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA said sales growth resumed in the first quarter, with an 8 percent gain led by demand for champagne and leather handbags, according to a Bloomberg News report.

The biggest luxury-goods maker said sales rose to 2.96 billion euros ($2.6 billion) from 2.75 billion a year earlier. Full-year operating profit will have a "significant" gain, Finance Director Patrick Houel said on a conference call.

A revival in demand for Louis Vuitton luggage and Dom Perignon champagnes that cost more than $100 a pop, shows an economic rebound is taking hold even though sales to travelers in Asia are in a slump, investors said. LVMH cut its profit target three times last year and had a second-half loss after fourth-quarter sales fell.

Tourists are beginning to return to stores in Europe and the U.S. mainland, though shop visits in Hawaii, Guam and Asia are down, Houel said. That's reflected in sales of Louis Vuitton brands, which rose 12 percent on the U.S. mainland and 11 percent in Japan, but fell 36 percent in Hawaii and 16 percent across Asia.

Hawaiian Electric to pay dividend of 62 cents

Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. yesterday declared a regular quarterly dividend of 62 cents a share.

The dividend, equal to a $2.48-a-share annual payment, is payable June 10 to shareholders of record May 10. The dividend yield currently is 5.4 percent.

HEI Chairman, President and Chief Executive Robert F. Clarke yesterday reiterated that the company plans to continue paying dividends "for the forseeable future." The company has paid dividends continuously since 1901.

Exxon Mobil profits drop as it misses expectations

DALLAS >> Exxon Mobil Corp. said yesterday that first-quarter earnings plunged 58 percent -- causing the oil giant to miss Wall Street's expectations by a wide margin -- as the company grappled with lower energy prices.

Company officials offered faint optimism for the current quarter, saying that profit margins for refining petroleum products have improved in the past three weeks.

Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said it earned $2.09 billion, or 30 cents per share in the first quarter, compared with $5 billion, or 71 cents per share, in the same period last year. Excluding continuing costs from the 1999 merger of Exxon and Mobil, the company said it would have earned $2.15 billion, or 31 cents per share.