Barnwell’s land deal
boosts net twelvefold
Barnwell Industries Inc., whose stock is hovering near an all-time high, posted a twelvefold jump in earnings in its fiscal 2004 second quarter due to significant returns from its Big Island land holdings.
The Honolulu-based company, which also conducts oil and gas operations in Alberta, Canada, said yesterday that net income in the quarter ended March 31 was $3.7 million, or $2.66 a share, compared with $300,000, or 22 cents a share, a year ago.
Revenues rose 132 percent to $13.9 million from $6 million after the company recognized net revenues of more than $7 million from the closing in February of a real estate deal involving Kaupulehu Developments, which is Barnwell's 78 percent-owned real estate development partnership.
The transaction was with WB KD Acquisition LLC, an affiliate of Westbrook Partners LLC, developers of the Kukio Resort. The first increment of the development will consist of 80 residential lots within an 870-leasehold-acre lot area.
Kaupulehu Developments also will receive a percentage of the sales prices of the resort's residential lots when they are sold to the public, and retains the development rights to a second increment within the 870-acre area on which residences and a golf course may be developed.
In addition, Kaupulehu Developments also holds the leasehold interest in another approximately 1,000 acres of land at Kaupulehu, which is zoned conservation.
Barnwell said its natural gas net production rose 16 percent in the quarter from a year ago and increased its investments 12 percent in oil and gas exploration and development in the first six months of its fiscal year to $4.6 million from $4.1 million a year ago.
Barnwell's stock, which rose 11 cents yesterday to $44.30, is less than $2 off its all-time closing high of $46.25 on Feb. 27, 2004.