Hawaiian Telcom posts $21.4M profit
Net income jumped to $21.4M from a net loss of $32.2M a year earlier
Hawaiian Telcom Communications Inc. has posted a quarterly profit for the second time since its spinoff two years ago from Verizon Communications Inc.
Profit at the privately owned telecommunications company got a boost from the termination of a $1 billion credit line and improvements to its back-office systems management, it said in a statement yesterday.
Net income for the three months ending June 30 jumped to $21.4 million from a net loss of $32.2 million a year earlier on revenue of $121.4 million, down 5 percent from $127.8 million.
"We have made significant progress in further developing the company in the second quarter, but there are systems transition-related challenges we continue to face that we are working hard to overcome," said Michael Ruley, Hawaiian Telcom's chief executive officer.
The company settled in February with BearingPoint Inc. over back-office systems blamed for customer-service problems last year. It has since switched those services to Accenture Ltd.
Ruley also said the $435 million sale of the company's directory publishing business to Local Insight Media LP is on track and will close this year. It has yet to be approved by the state Public Utilities Commission, Hawaiian Telcom spokes-woman Ann Nishida said.
The Honolulu-based company's myChoice plan, which includes home phone service, unlimited long-distance, and high-speed Internet, added 5,900 subscribers in the quarter, down from 15,325 subscribers gained in the prior quarter.
Hawaiian Telcom reported 91,600 high-speed Internet subscribers, flat from last year, and just below its peak of 92,300 in the third quarter of 2006.
The number of land-line subscribers continued its decline at 580,900 for the quarter, down from 595,000 in the first quarter of this year and 602,900 subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2006, Nishida said.
Private equity firm the Carlyle Group of Washington, D.C., acquired Verizon's Hawaii assets for $1.6 billion in May 2005, changing the company name from Verizon Hawaii to Hawaiian Telcom.
