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Article helps lift A&B shares

Alexander & Baldwin Inc.'s stock gained $2.96, or 6.1 percent, to $51.81 yesterday after a Barron's article said the shares may rise to $70 as the company's real estate investments appreciate.

The article, citing Aaron Visse of Kensington Investments Group, singled out A&B's 1,000-acre, 1,250-unit Kukuiula resort on Kauai that the company is developing with partner DMB Associates. The article said the resort won't begin selling units until early next year but noted that 315 people already have sent in $50,000 checks for a refundable fee for a shot at the 123 units initially available.

No end seen to Northwest strike

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. » The Northwest Airlines mechanics strike hit the 10-day mark with an unbroken stalemate.

A key union negotiator said yesterday that no overtures have been made to get the two parties back to the bargaining table.

"If Northwest calls, we'll call them back and see what they want," Jeff Mathews, contract coordinator for the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, said late yesterday.

However, Mathews added that AMFA leaders have not initiated contact with Northwest management or officials with the National Mediation Board.

Intelsat plans to buy PanAmSat

NEW YORK » Satellite pioneer Intelsat Ltd. said yesterday it is acquiring PanAmSat Holding Corp. for $3.2 billion in a deal that would add a top cable TV broadcaster to Intelsat's dominant position as the biggest provider of space-based data and voice communications for governments and businesses.

Intelsat, created in 1964 through a partnership of 147 nations and then privatized in 2001, will also assume $3.2 billion of debt from PanAmSat in the deal, the companies said yesterday. The proposed merger would nearly double Intelsat's satellite fleet to 53 spacecraft, creating a company with $1.9 billion in annual revenues.

A former unit of DirecTV Group Inc., PanAmSat's satellites are still used to deliver DirecTV's cable service and other direct broadcast TV services to about 125 million households, primarily in North and South America.

The company, based in Wilton, Conn., was acquired more than a year ago in a $3.4 billion buyout led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. This past March, PanAmSat went public again with an initial public offering of 50 million shares priced at $18 a share.