BUSINESS BRIEFS
BancWest earnings up
Advertiser Staff
Acquisitions helped lift fourth-quarter earnings at BancWest Corp., the parent of First Hawaiian Bank, by 21.6 percent.
BancWest's net income for the three months ending Dec. 31, 2005 rose to $156.1 million from the year-earlier period's $128.3 million, the company reported yesterday. BancWest said its earnings for the full year were $590.4 million, up 24.7 percent from 2004.
During the quarter, BancWest completed its $1.3 billion acquisition of Omaha, Neb.-based Commercial Federal Corp., which operates 204 branches.
N.Y. EXECUTIVE TO RUN KHON
The buyers of KHON-TV plan to hire a New York broadcast executive to run the local television station.
Joe McNamara, vice president and general manager of WBNG-TV in Binghamton, N.Y., will become KHON's vice president and general manager, Montecito, Calif.-based SJL Broadcast Management said in a news release.
McNamara will replace Rick Blangiardi.
BORDERS TEAMS WITH STARBUCKS
Five Borders Books & Music stores in Hawai'i plan to convert their in-house cafes to Starbucks stores by September. The Michigan-based retailer made the arrangement with Coffee Partners Hawaii, the local licensee operating Starbucks in Hawai'i.
OWNER TO PAY $60,000 IN OT
The owner of Honolulu-based maritime company Smith Tankermen Services has agreed to pay $60,000 in overtime back wages to six workers who had been improperly classified as exempt from overtime pay, the U.S. Labor Department said yesterday.
The department's Wage and Hour Division determined that the employees were entitled to overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek.
In a consent judgment filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawai'i, the company's owner, Gordon L.K. Smith, agreed to pay the overtime wages due for work performed between October 2001 and July 2004.
