Grace Pacific CEO takes seat on A&B board
David Hulihee has joined the board of Alexander & Baldwin Inc.
Hulihee is chief executive officer and president of Grace Pacific LLC, a construction firm acquired by A&B on Oct. 1.
Hulihee, 65, had been chairman of Grace until the company became a subsidiary of A&B. His election to A&B’s board was made by other board members Oct. 29.
Grace’s CEO also is a board director at First Hawaiian Bank, a board trustee of the Queen’s Health System and a director of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply.
Territorial seeks to change bank charter
The holding company of Territorial Savings Bank said it will submit an application to the state Division of Financial Institutions that would convert the bank from a federal savings bank to a Hawaii-chartered savings bank.
As part of the charter conversion, the bank said it intends to file an application with the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco to become a member bank. Territorial is regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as a federal savings bank, but when it converts to a state-chartered bank, it no longer will be able to be regulated by the OCC.
Territorial Bancorp Inc. will continue to be regulated by the Federal Reserve Bank and expects to remain a savings and loan holding company. No timetable has been established for the completion of the charter conversion.
"These changes, if approved, will lower the regulatory cost to the bank," Territorial Chairman and CEO Allan Kitagawa said. "In addition, the bank and holding company will have the same federal regulator."
Refining weakness hurts Chevron
NEW YORK » Chevron said Friday that net income fell 6 percent in the third quarter as weak refining results and higher operating costs offset higher oil and gas production and prices.
The nation’s second-biggest oil company posted net income of $4.95 billion for the quarter on revenue of $56.6 billion. The company earned $5.25 billion on revenue of $55.66 billion in the same quarter last year.
The latest earnings amounted to $2.57 per share. Analysts had expected earnings of $2.69 per share, on average, according to FactSet.
Berkshire Hathaway’s profit surges 29%
OMAHA, Neb. » Warren Buffett’s company reported a 29 percent jump in third-quarter profit as it collected some of the proceeds from deals made during the financial crisis.
Berkshire Hathaway earned $5.05 billion, or $3,074 per Class A share, during the quarter. That’s up from $3.92 billion, or $2,373 per Class A share, in the same period last year.
The biggest factor in the results was a $1.2 billion investment gain Berkshire recorded as it prepared to redeem warrants in General Electric and Goldman Sachs. Mars and Wrigley also repaid Berkshire for a crisis-era investment.
Berkshire said Mars and Wrigley repaid $5.08 billion plus interest on Oct. 1 for money it loaned Mars to help it acquire Wrigley.
Berkshire held roughly $42 billion in cash at the end of the quarter, which leaves about $22 billion for investments because Buffett prefers to keep at least $20 billion on hand.
U.S. car demand picked up after shutdown
DETROIT >> The government shutdown dampened — but didn’t stall — Americans’ demand for new cars and trucks.
The 16-day shutdown slowed U.S. auto sales in the first two weeks of October, but they picked up speed in the last two weeks. Sales rose 11 percent to 1.2 million.
General Motors, Ford, Nissan and Chrysler all had double-digit sales gains, while Toyota, Honda and Hyundai saw smaller increases. Of major automakers, only Volkswagen’s sales fell. Stable fuel prices, low interest rates and the increased availability of credit pushed people to buy regardless of the political wrangling, said Kurt McNeil, GM’s vice president of U.S. sales.
ON THE MOVE
Cades Schutte has announced the following hires:
» Kirk Neste as an associate in the litigation department. He was previously an associate for Faegre Baker Daniels in Denver.
» Stacy K. Takekawa as an associate in the trusts and estates department. She previously clerked for Circuit Judge Derrick H.M. Chan.
JN Productions has announced that Robert Furukawa has been promoted to president and chief operating officer. He joined the company in 1986 and was previously vice president and general manager of JN Productions.
