Maui Land &Pineapple Co. kept liquidating assets during the final three months of last year in a continuing strategy that enabled the company to produce a $7.4 million profit in the fourth quarter that compared with a $900,000 loss in the same period the year before.
The profit, reported Wednesday evening, was derived from selling Kapalua Village Center, a 26,000-square-foot retail building at Kapalua Resort, for $18 million. The sale, made in December, produced a gain of $12.9 million, and the proceeds were used to reduce long-term debt, the company said.
For all of 2016, Maui Land earned $21.8 million, up from $6.8 million the year before. Besides the retail complex sale in December, last year’s profit was driven by a $15 million sale of 304 acres long planned for residential community development and a $3 million sale of 5 acres slated for development of a 42-unit workforce housing complex.
Warren Haruki, Maui Land’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement that the company has been working to “pivot” itself for sustained growth.
“We are pleased with the many significant accomplishments over the past several years in strengthening our company’s financial condition and refocusing our business,” he said. “We are very appreciative of the continued support of our shareholders, creditors and the community.”
Kapalua-based Maui Land owns 23,000 acres on the Valley Isle and once was a major owner and operator of hotels and golf courses as well as a pineapple plantation. However, pineapple farming losses and an investment in further developing the resort that turned disastrous amid the 2008 recession forced Maui Land to turn to asset sales for survival over the past several years.
Today the company earns revenue by leasing farmland and other real estate to others, operating utilities, running a private club and selling real estate assets.
Maui Land last year generated $47.4 million in revenue, of which $36 million was from real estate sales. Another $1.1 million was from real estate sale commissions. About $5.3 million was from leasing, $3.3 million was from utilities and $1.6 million was from resort amenities and miscellaneous operations.
Stock investors are rewarding the company for its improved finances, as shares of Maui Land stock rose to close at a 52-week high of $8.30 Thursday, up from $8.10 Wednesday before the company announced its earnings. The 52-week low for shares was $5.25 on March 7. In the past 10 years, the peak and valley for Maui Land stock was $37.97 in 2007 and $1.90 in 2012.
