Oahu electricity bills to go up 4.1%

Oahu households will see yet another jump in their electricity bill in September.

The typical household bill, based on 600 kilowatt-hours per month, is expected to jump this month by 4.1 percent to $145.81 from $140.05 in August. That's a considerably smaller jump than in August, when rates jumped an average 14.3 percent, reflecting the impact of a 4.7 percent interim rate increase as well as higher fuel rates.

On Maui the typical household bill will drop just slightly to $159.03, 1.5 percent lower than $161.37 in August. In July the average bill was $147.19.

The Big Island, meanwhile, will have the highest average of $202.63, or 4 percent higher than $194.91 in August. In July the average bill was $187.74.

The effective rates, which include fuel and other charges, for August are 22.80 cents/kwh for Oahu, 25.16 cents/kwh for Maui and 31.93 cents/kwh for the Big Island.

Central Pacific to raise up to $15M

Central Pacific Financial Corp., which postponed a $100 million stock offering in July, is seeking to raise up to $15 million through an equity-issuance plan as part of the overall capital-raising plan for the company.

The parent of Central Pacific Bank said it will use a portion of its authorized but unissued approximate 68 million shares for the sale and that the net proceeds primarily will be used to contribute equity capital to the bank. Central Pacific said the proceeds also might be used for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

Sandler O'Neill + Partners LP and RBC Capital Markets Corp. will act as agents for the offering.

Central Pacific said it still is planning to seek shareholder authorization to issue an additional 85 million shares in conjunction with the postponed offering at a special shareholders meeting on Oct. 22. That offering was postponed because the bank did not have enough authorized shares at the time to generate $100 million, due to the company's low stock price.

The bank's shares closed up 4 cents yesterday at $2.42 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Continental adds Oahu-Houston flight

Continental Airlines is increasing holiday service between Honolulu and Houston with the addition of a daily nonstop flight, effective Dec. 17 through Jan. 10, with the exception of Christmas Day.

The service will increase Continental's daily flight schedule between Honolulu and Houston to three round-trip flights per day from two.

Continental also serves Hawaii with daily flights from Newark, N.J., and Los Angeles, and between Honolulu, Guam and the Marshall Islands.

Beginning Dec. 18, Continental will operate twice-weekly service between Honolulu and Nadi, Fiji.

ON THE MOVE

  Grant Thornton announced the following promotions:

» Jennifer Gee to marketing manager. She has 12 years' experience of providing marketing services.

» Julie Hedani to manager for Audit Services. She has five years' experience providing audit and advisory services.

» Trisha Kaneshiro to manager for Audit Services. She has five years' experience providing audit services.

» Tyler Kimura to manager for Advisory Services. He has five years' experience providing advisory and forensic accounting services.

Bishop Museum has named Kahikino Noa Dettweiler as legal counsel. He previously was deputy attorney general for the state of Hawaii Family Law Division as well as a member of the Native Hawaiian Historic Preservation Council.