Bankoh ranked No. 2 for U.S.-owned banks

Bank of Hawaii has been named one of the top two banks in the country by Forbes Magazine for the fourth year in a row.

The state’s second-largest bank, with $13 billion in assets in 2012, was named second among the 100 largest U.S.-owned banks and thrifts for the second straight year after heading Forbes’ list in 2010 and 2009. The 2012 rankings were published in Forbes’ Dec. 18 online edition.

First Hawaiian Bank, the state’s largest bank, was ineligible for the list because it is owned by Paris-based BNP Paribas.

"Being named among the top-performing banks for all four years that Forbes has been conducting this ranking is a great testament to our employees and customers," said Peter Ho, chairman, president and CEO of Bank of Hawaii.

Forbes partnered with SNL Financial to evaluate U.S.-owned banks and thrifts in 2012 based on eight financial performance measures: return on average equity, net interest margin, nonperforming loans as a percentage of loans, nonperforming assets as a percent of assets, reserves as a percentage of nonperforming loans, two capital ratios (Tier 1 and risk-based) and leverage ratio.

Boston-based State Street, with $204 billion in assets, ranked No. 1, up from 14th the previous year.

A&B’s Waihonua condo sales hit 274 units

Alexander & Baldwin Inc. said as of Thursday it had sold 274 units in its 341-unit Wai­ho­nua condominium tower in Kakaako. A&B said the units were sold through its joint venture, Kewalo Development LLC, and 259 of the sales are binding. That exceeds pre-sales requirements for drawing on the project’s $120 million construction loan, the company said.

Funding for the tower is coming from a group of lenders led by First Hawaiian Bank and composed of Wells Fargo Bank N.A., Bank of Hawaii and Central Pacific Bank.

The $200 million project is under construction, and the company said it expects to complete it in the first half of 2015. The general contractor is Hawaiian Dredging.

Lunch bunch focuses on Italian exotic cars

Sergio De Oliveira, sales manager at JN Exotics, will discuss the latest Italian exotic cars at the auto lunch bunch at noon Tuesday at the Waikiki Yacht Club. On display will be a 2013 Ferrari FF all-wheel drive sports car with a 651 horsepower, V-12 power plant from JN Exotics as well as a 1983 Ferrari 512 Boxer with a V-12 engine owned by Dr. Ben Chu.

Most Wall Street experts got 2012 wrong

From John Paulson’s call for a collapse in Europe to Morgan Stanley’s warning that U.S. stocks would decline, Wall Street got little right in its prognosis for the year just ended.

Paulson, who manages $19 billion in hedge funds, said the euro would fall apart and bet against the region’s debt. Morgan Stanley predicted the Standard & Poor’s 500 index would lose 7 percent, and Credit Suisse Group foresaw wider swings in equity prices. All of them proved wrong last year, and investors would have done better listening to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who said the real risk was being too pessimistic. The ill-timed advice shows that even the largest banks and most successful investors failed to anticipate how government actions would influence markets. Unprecedented central bank stimulus in the U.S. and Europe sparked a 16 percent gain in the S&P 500 including dividends, led to a 23 percent drop in the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, paid investors in Greek debt 78 percent and gave Treasuries a 2.2 percent return even after Warren Buffett called bonds "dangerous."

"They paid too much attention to the fear du jour," said Jeffrey Saut, who helps oversee about $350 billion as the chief investment strategist at Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Fla. "They were worrying about a dysfunctional government in the U.S. They were worried about the euro quake and the implosion of Greece and Portugal. Instead of looking at what’s going on around them, they were letting these macro events cause fear to creep into the equation."

Lilly 2013 profit forecast tops expectations

INDIANAPOLIS » Eli Lilly and Co. unveiled a better-than-expected 2013 earnings forecast Friday, in part because the pharmaceutical company expects growth from several established drugs to help make up for revenue lost to generic competition. The Indianapolis drug developer saw sales for its all-time best-selling drug, the antipsychotic Zyprexa, crater in 2012 after it lost U.S. patent protection. Lilly will take another hit next December when it loses patent protection for its current top seller, the antidepressant Cymbalta.

But company executives said they expect Cymbalta and another product that loses patent protection in 2013, the insulin Humalog, to drive revenue growth along with the cancer treatment Alimta and the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis.

Tory Burch becomes billionaire on stake sale

Chris Burch, former husband of fashion designer Tory Burch, sold about half of his 28.3 percent stake in New York-based retailer Tory Burch LLC on Dec. 31, settling a year-old legal dispute between the couple.

The sale values the closely held operation at about $3.3 billion, according to New York-based research firm PrivCo Media LLC, and makes Tory Burch a billionaire. Chris Burch will retain about a 15 percent stake in the operation. Tory Burch LLC sells handbags, shoes, dresses and eyeglasses through more than 80 Tory Burch retail stores and other outlets, such as Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s.

ON THE MOVE 

AlohaCare has announced David Patterson as its new marketing manager. He has 25 years of experience as a marketing and broadcast production specialist, including serving as a marketing consultant for various clients, and a producer and on-air reporter for HEC-TV. He also taught broadcast communications courses and helped launch a new athletic department website for Principia College in St. Louis, Mo.

Wilcox Health Foundation has named Crystal Leach as its director of philanthropy. She was previously a director of development for the Bozeman Deaconess Foundation based in Montana. Prior to Bozeman, Leach served in various development roles with Yellowstone Association in support of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

Aloha Petroleum has donated more than $6,500 to Toys for Tots Hawaii, which distributes new toys at Christmas to disadvantaged children in the islands.