The owner of Hawaii’s last sugar cane plantation, Alexander & Baldwin Inc., earned a severely reduced profit last year in advance of its plan to close the money-losing farm on Maui.

A&B’s net income fell 52 percent to $31.1 million in 2015 from $64.5 million the year before.

Honolulu-based A&B announced the financial results Thursday.

Most of the profit drop stemmed from sugar plantation subsidiary Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., which A&B announced Jan. 6 it will close.

A&B said the 36,000-acre farm was the principal driver of a $51.9 million operating loss for its agribusiness division, which also includes land leased to a Kauai coffee farm and other smaller enterprises. This operating loss included $22.6 million in costs related to the HC&S shutdown plan.

In 2014 A&B had an operating loss of $11.8 million in agribusiness.

Despite the outsize negative impact from HC&S last year, A&B still produced a relatively hefty profit from its three other divisions: commercial real estate leasing, real estate development and sales, and road paving and quarry business Grace Pacific.

“Aside from the challenges in our sugar operation, our company performed well in 2015,” Chris Benjamin, A&B’s president and CEO, said in a statement.

Real estate development generated the biggest operating profit last year, $65 million, though that was down from $85.7 million the year before.

Major property sales last year included proceeds from 329 condominium units sold in the Waihonua tower in Kakaako as well as about 30 other condos on Kauai and Hawaii island.

Operating profit from commercial property leasing operations that include a collection of Hawaii shopping centers and much of the commercial core of Kailua was $53.1 million, up 12 percent from $47.5 million the year before.

Grace Pacific produced a $30.9 million operating profit last year, up 19 percent from $25.9 the year before.

The big drag from HC&S was concentrated in the last quarter of 2015 and produced an $11.9 million net loss for A&B in the October-December period. A year earlier A&B had an $8.1 million fourth-quarter profit.

The fourth-quarter loss last year included a $17.5 million operating loss related to agribusiness plus the $22.6 million in shutdown costs, which were partially offset by about $30 million in operating profits from property development and sales, real estate leasing and Grace Pacific.

Revenue for the 2015 fourth quarter was $121.4 million, down 27 percent from $165.1 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue for all of last year totaled $570.5 million, up 2 percent from $560 million a year earlier.

This year A&B expects its net income to take an even bigger hit from winding down HC&S and devising a transition to other crops. The company forecast last month that its net income in 2016 would be $58 million to $76 million lower due to severance benefit payments, closing costs that include removing facilities, and a $5-$15 million operating loss from sugar production.

The final harvest for HC&S is expected to start next week. The plantation employs about 675 people, of which 645 are slated to be laid off.

“Much of our focus in agribusiness in 2016 will be on a successful final harvest and helping smooth the transition for affected employees,” Benjamin said in the earnings report. “As we complete the harvest, our focus for the plantation will shift to implementing our diversified agriculture model, which we believe will put the agribusiness segment on a path toward stability.”

Shares of A&B stock closed Thursday at $33.44 on the New York Stock Exchange before the earnings announcement. A&B’s stock price hit a 52-week low of $29.30 on Jan. 2 shortly before the company disclosed its plan to close HC&S. The 52-week high was $43.52 on April 6.