Maui Land & Pineapple Co. earnings swung to a nearly $80 million loss last year from a year-earlier profit after big reductions in the value of its assets and operating losses in real estate development, resort and agriculture operations during the fourth quarter.

The struggling company, which implemented two rounds of layoffs in the past eight months, said its net loss last year was $79.4 million, or $9.98 per share.

A year earlier, Maui Land posted an $8 million profit equivalent to $1.03 per share.

Kahului-based Maui Land also announced yesterday that it has a definitive agreement to sell and lease back its recently renovated championship golf course. The sale of The Plantation Course will raise $50 million that will be used to reduce debt.

Robert Webber, Maui Land president and CEO, said most of the company's net loss last year was from write-downs that include development costs and tax liabilities to better reflect asset values in a depressed economy.

"It's not like we lost $70 million in cash," he said. "We took a number of year-end write-downs."

The biggest charge against earnings was $45.3 million to the company's stake in Kapalua Bay Holdings, a partnership led by Maui Land that is developing the luxury timeshare and condominium complex Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences at Kapalua Bay.

The charge was taken for reducing the value of Maui Land's investment in the nearly complete $355 million project, which is 51 percent owned by the company.

Also related to real estate operations was a $10.6 million charge taken for development costs that aren't expected to be recovered.

A third adjustment to Maui Land's assets used losses to reduce future tax liabilities, which the company said increased last year's net loss by $23.6 million.

The three write-downs helped produced a $70.6 million net loss in the fourth quarter, compared with a $4 million loss in the same quarter last year.

For the first nine months of last year, Maui Land reported a net loss of $8.8 million.

Most of Maui Land's losses occurred in real estate operations late last year. The company said its real estate division's operating loss was $61.5 mil-lion in the fourth quarter, or $40 million for the full year, compared with operating profits of $6.9 million for the fourth quarter and $53.1 million for the year in 2007.

Largely affecting the operating losses was weak revenue from land sales, which totaled $4.4 million for the full year compared with $59.6 million a year earlier.

"It's a tough time to be a developer, and that's a big chunk of our business," Webber said.

Webber added that the company is still optimistic about its Kapalua Bay development over the long term. He said there were 10 timeshare purchases each in January and February.

The Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences has 84 traditional fee-simple condos, and 62 units being sold as "fractional ownership" condos — essentially a longer-term version of timeshares — in which each unit is shared by 12 buyers who each get three weeks of annual use.

Project construction is on schedule for a June completion despite a hitch over financing late last year that was resolved last month.

In Maui Land's resort division, fewer visitors helped produce a $6.6 million operating loss in the fourth quarter, up from a $5 million operating loss in the same quarter last year. The division's full-year operating loss was $19.7 million, up from $11.7 million a year earlier.

Maui Land's agriculture business, mainly fresh pineapple, reported an $11.2 million operating loss in the fourth quarter, up from a loss of $8 million a year earlier. The division's full-year operating loss was $30.4 million, up from $26.6 million a year earlier.

The company, which quit canning pineapple in 2007, said some of the agriculture operating losses stemmed from writing off fixed assets, inventories and employee severance costs as pineapple farming was further cut back last year.

In July, Maui Land, focusing on reducing losses in its pineapple business, announced layoffs for 274 workers, or about 26 percent of its payroll. And in January, the company announced layoffs for another 100 employees at Kapalua Resort and corporate headquarters. The combined moves were estimated to save $18 million a year.

In a move to reduce its debt, Maui Land has agreed to sell its Plantation Course, home of the Mercedes Benz Championship PGA Tour event.

The buyer is TY Management Corp., but Webber said the owners of the company, which was formed recently for the purpose of acquiring the golf course, do not wish to be identified.

The sale is expected to close before the end of the month, and would give Maui Land a two-year lease to operate the golf course, with options to extend the lease. Webber said the ownership change will appear seamless to customers.

Proceeds from the sale will reduce Maui Land's debt, which in September stood at about $120 million. Webber said the company's debt level would be reasonable in a normal economy and real estate sales of $60 million to $70 million a year. But with the plunge in real estate sales and financial markets, it was prudent to cut debt.

Maui Land also is negotiating a loan extension on one of its credit facilities, and said yesterday that it won't be able to file its annual report by the end of the month because of the negotiations.

Shares of Maui Land stock closed up $1.26 to $7.77 on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday before the company announced its earnings, the golf course sale and annual report delay.

Maui Land shares in the past 52 weeks have traded between a high of $34.25 on July 22 and a low of $5.20 on March 9.