BUSINESS BRIEFS
New beer to hit state next week
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Anheuser-Busch will launch a Chinese import beer in Hawai'i and Los Angeles next week, the company announced yesterday.
Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. will release its Harbin Lager beer in the two locations on Monday, said Andy Goeler, vice president of imports.
The announcement comes days after Anheuser-Busch announced it will be the sole U.S. distributor of Grolsch, a European beer.
FAIRMONT BEATS EXPECTATIONS
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Inc., the luxury-hotel operator being bought by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, said it had profit in the fourth quarter that topped analysts' estimates, helped by higher room rates and the sale of the Fairmont Orchid on the Big Island.
The company had net income of $68.4 million, or 88 cents a share, compared with a loss of $4.4 million, or 6 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 41 percent to $232.4 million, the Toronto- based company said today in a statement.
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Inc. in December sold the 540-room Fairmont Orchid on the South Kohala Coast to Westbrook Partners LLC, a Boston real estate investment company for $250 million. Fairmont, which bought the hotel for $140 million three years ago, continues to manage the property.
WAL-MART PLANS MARCH JOB FAIRS
The Kona Wal-Mart has scheduled several job fairs in early March to fill 85 positions, including full- and part-time cashiers, overnight stockers, and sales associates.
The job fairs will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 2, 3, 9 and 10. The average wage for regular, full-time Wal-Mart hourly workers in Hawai'i is $10.58 per hour, the company said. Applications are also accepted at the store's online hiring center. For more information, call (808) 334-0466.
SAUDI ATTACK SENDS OIL UP
WASHINGTON — Crude oil futures jumped 4 percent yesterday after a thwarted attack on a massive oil facility in Saudi Arabia rattled a market already jittery about supply disruptions in Nigeria and Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil producer, with output of about 9.5 million barrels per day, or 11 percent of global consumption. The target of the attack, the Abqaiq oil complex in eastern Saudi Arabia, processes two-thirds of the country's oil before export.
TED TURNER TO EXIT TIME BOARD
NEW YORK — Ted Turner, the media visionary who founded CNN, said yesterday he wouldn't seek re-election to the board of Time Warner Inc.
Turner, who is 67, became a director of Time Warner in 1996 when the media conglomerate bought his cable networks company Turner Broadcasting Systems. He long held a prominent role in guiding Time Warner's affairs, but in recent years complained of being sidelined. Turner has increasingly turned his time and energy toward philanthropic efforts, which include overseeing an eponymous environmental foundation and his large land holdings.
