$70 million sale of First Insurance Center completed
Pacific Office Properties Trust Inc. completed its planned sale of Honolulu office building First Insurance Center on Monday to Senior Housing Properties Trust for $70.5 million including the assumption of $52 million of debt.
Honolulu-based Pacific Office announced a sale agreement in February, and reported the deal’s completion Tuesday.
Senior Housing Properties is a Massachusetts company that owns close to 400 properties nationwide primarily comprising senior-living communities and medical office buildings.
First Insurance Center is an 11-story building on the makai-Ewa corner of Ward Avenue and Beretania Street with 202,966 square feet of space leased by tenants in the medical profession, as well as insurance and other fields.
Medical industry gets $14.7M from Feds
Hawaii medical care providers have received $14.7 million from a federal program to encourage use of electronic health records, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology said Tuesday.
The 237 local providers were among more than 100,000 nationwide that were paid by the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record incentive programs, which began last year.
As of the end of May, incentive payments totaled more than $5.7 billion to physicians, nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and hospitals that adopted the technology intended to improve care, reduce medical errors, cut paperwork and eliminate duplicate screenings and tests.
Walgreen buys into European drug retailer
Walgreen Co. will pay $6.7 billion in cash and stock to buy a stake in European health and beauty retailer Alliance Boots in a deal that will give global clout to a U.S. drugstore chain struggling with slipping sales at home.
The combination would create the largest single buyer of prescription drugs in the world and give Walgreen access to emerging markets like China and Egypt, company officials said Tuesday. However, it also will plant the biggest U.S. drugstore chain in Europe, a continent beset by debt worries in Greece, Spain and other nations.
Walgreen said Alliance Boots brings in revenue from some of the most stable countries in Europe. CEO Greg Wasson told analysts the acquisition is "a truly game-changing step" for his Deerfield, Ill., company.
FedEx predicts moderate earnings growth
NEW YORK » FedEx Corp. said Tuesday that slow global economic growth will crimp its earnings through the next 12 months. The company vowed to make significant cost cuts to counter drops in package shipments.
The world’s second-largest package delivery company is closely watched for signs about the health of the economy. It forecast moderate growth for both the U.S. and global economies, amid the debt crisis in Europe and slowing growth in Asia.
The company’s results for its fiscal fourth quarter topped Wall Street estimates when a charge for retiring planes was excluded. Its stock rose nearly 3 percent.
Bookseller’s annual Nook sales jump 34%
NEW YORK » Barnes & Noble said Tuesday that its fiscal fourth-quarter loss narrowed as the company continues to invest in its Nook e-reader business and adjust to the evolving book business.
Facing tough competition from online retailers and discount stores, the largest traditional U.S. book retailer has invested heavily in the Nook e-reader and e-books.
Barnes & Noble broke out sales of its Nook e-reader for the first time, the most transparent it has been about the division to date. The numbers show that the division is a work in progress.
Nook sales fell 11 percent to $164 million during the quarter as the company took back its Nook Simple Touch e-reader from retailers to make room for new inventory. For the fiscal year, Nook sales rose 34 percent to $933 million.
Republicans OK record airline subsidies
WASHINGTON » Tea party lawmakers from rural areas were among those fighting the hardest to preserve taxpayer subsidies for airline flights into and out of small towns last year, after senior Republicans tried to eliminate the program, which has often been criticized. Now the House Appropriations Committee is awarding the program an 11 percent budget increase.
Next year the subsidies would reach a record $214 million under a bill approved by the Republican-run committee.
The subsidies can reach hundreds of dollars per ticket — and can exceed $1,000 in a few cases — though a recent overhaul of the program could soon take care of such cases.
Spotify uses free mobile service as bait
LOS ANGELES » The music subscription company Spotify is joining Pandora, Slacker and Songza in offering a free radio service for mobile devices in the United States.
Until now, the company charged $10 per month for use of its mobile app.
The free service, which comes with audio ads, is a way for Spotify to entice people to sign up for a paid subscription, which strips out the ads and enables users to choose songs.
On the Move
Bacardi USA has announced the promotion of Sommer Meyer to regional manager of Hawaii and Alaska from regional manager of Hawaii.
Central Pacific Bank has promoted Debra Tangonan to vice president and Kaneohe branch manager. She has 36 years of banking experience and has held positions such as assistant branch manager, commercial branch manager and branch manager.
Kaiser Permanente Hawaii has announced:
>> Dr. Allyson Chambers will specialize in family medicine at the Kona clinic on Hawaii island. She received her medical degree from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.
>> Dr. Jocelyn Sonson has joined the emergency department at Moanalua Medical Center. She was previously an emergency medicine attending physician at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center in New York.
