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Banks stay silent on merger offer

The year-long attempt by Central Pacific Financial Corp. to acquire rival CB Bancshares Inc. may enter a new chapter today.

Both banks maintained their silence again yesterday as Central Pacific's one-week extension for City Bank's parent to accept a merger offer reached its final hours last night. Neither bank would say whether the deal was dead, leaving open the possibility that an announcement could come as early as this morning regarding the status of the merger proposal.

Central Pacific's latest offer, which was made on March 15, was worth about $385 million, or $86.71 a share, as of yesterday's market close.

A&B lists Maui leasehold office

Alexander & Baldwin Inc. has put Wailuku's six-story One Main Plaza office up for sale for $11.8 million leasehold.

A&B bought the lease interest in 1997 for $7.2 million, less than half the $15 million it cost to develop the building in 1989.

The building has 85,303 rentable square feet and is now 54 percent occupied by tenants that include Morgan Stanley, the University of Phoenix, and Prudential Insurance.

The sale, which is being handled by the Bellevue, Wash., office of CB Richard Ellis, includes the fee interest in 4,833 of the total 36,594 square feet of land area.

The project initially was opposed by neighborhood residents who said it would add traffic and obstruct views in low-rise Wailuku. In 1994, it ran into financial trouble, prompting lender First Hawaiian Bank to file a foreclosure suit. First Hawaiian took over the property in 1996.

Puna Geothermal Venture sold

Constellation Energy Group Inc. said it agreed to sell Puna Geothermal Venture on the Big Island to a subsidiary of Ormat Technologies Inc.

Under the agreement, Ormat Nevada Inc. will acquire the 30-megawatt geothermal power plant and associated assets in Pahoa, Baltimore-based Constellation said in a statement. Terms of the transaction weren't disclosed.

Sparks, Nev.-based Ormat owns and operates geothermal power plants in 19 countries, the statement said. Geothermal generating plants use heat from the earth to produce electricity.

Banker Lau elected to A&B board

Constance Lau, president and chief executive officer of American Savings Bank, was elected yesterday to the board of directors at Alexander & Baldwin Inc.

Lau, 52, has been in charge of the bank since 2001 and previously was the bank's chief operating officer and senior executive vice president. She also is a Kamehameha Schools trustee.

Boyd Gaming earnings drop 18%

Boyd Gaming Corp., which conducts Hawaii travel charters to Las Vegas, said first-quarter earnings declined nearly 18 percent from a year ago because of a $5.7 million back-taxes charge from Indiana.

However, the Las Vegas-based casino operator said its new Borgata casino in Atlantic City, N.J., was boosting profit margins and was ready to expand.

Boyd had net profit of $13.5 million, or 20 cents a share, compared with $16.4 million, or 25 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding the tax charge this quarter and preopening costs from a year earlier, Boyd profits were unchanged at 29 cents from a year ago.

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[Hawaii Inc.]

NEW JOBS

>> Laurel Johnston has joined the Hawaii Uninsured Project as its executive director. She was previously a Communications Pacific community building practice account supervisor.

>> Mike Perel has joined the state Hawaii Health Systems Corp.-Kauai Region senior management team as chief financial officer. He previously worked for three years as comptroller for a major Kauai restaurant and worked for 15 years in public accounting in New York City.

>> Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel has hired Robert K. Fricke, litigation; Amy Kay Thompson-Smith, environmental and health law; Pamela Ann Fong, corporate and tax law; Michael D. Orlando, corporate and real estate law; and Joie M. B. C. Yuen, real estate law.

>> Tom Young has joined planning, architecture and interior design firm Group 70 International as project team leader for the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force multi-year housing privatization projects. He is the founder and CEO of VIA Architecture and Design, which has planned and designed several projects throughout Hawaii and China.

PROMOTIONS

>> American Savings Bank has promoted Gayle Villados to Pearl City Foodland branch manager and assistant vice president. She has over eight years of experience in the banking industry and previously worked at Bank of America Hawaii.