BUSINESS BRIEFS
HEI net income tumbles by 79%
Advertiser Staff and News Services
First-quarter net income at Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. slid by 79 percent compared with a year earlier as profits at its electric utility and banks tumbled.
The company said it earned $6.76 million, or 8 cents a share, in the January to March period. That compared with a profit of $32.3 million, or 40 cents a share, a year prior.
The company said operating and maintenance expenses jumped at its electric utility, which also had a $6.9 million write-off on its Keahole, Kona plant expansion project.
Profit at its American Savings Bank dropped because of difficulties dealing with higher short-term interest rates at a time when long-term rates were falling.
Not all the news was bad, though.
Hawaiian Electric Industries' holding company and other operations' losses were lower than a year earlier, in part because of an after-tax gain on the sale of its remaining holdings in Hoku Scientific Inc.
TESORO'S SHARES FALL AFTER REPORT
Shares of Tesoro Corp., owner of six U.S. refineries, including one in Hawai'i, had their biggest drop since 2005 after the company reported a smaller increase in first-quarter profit than analysts expected.
The shares slid $8.88, or 7.2 percent, to $114.95 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The decline was the biggest for San Antonio-based Tesoro since November 2005.
Profit more than doubled to $116 million, or $1.67 a share, from $43 million, or 61 cents, a year earlier, San Antonio-based Tesoro said.
