Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Tuesday, August 12, 1997

BankAmerica: Isle loan
program will continue

BankAmerica Corp. said today it will continue to work toward its goal of lending $150 million for developments on Hawaiian Home Lands even after the sale of its Bank of America Hawaii branches is completed.

The loans will be made through Honolulu Mortgage Co., which will remain a BankAmerica subsidiary after the isle banking business is sold to American Savings Bank. That deal is expected to close by early next year.

BankAmerica said that since 1994 it has originated $26.6 million in Hawaiian Home Lands loans, somewhat less than it had hoped to lend by now. The bank said it overestimated the number of lots the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands would make available for use and underestimated the competition from other lenders.

GE Capital Hawaii
opens Alaska unit

GE Capital Hawaii, a commercial financing and leasing business, has expanded to Alaska with the opening of GE Capital Alaska in Anchorage. George Finefrock, who was a senior vice president of GE Capital Hawaii, was named president of the Alaska unit.

GE Capital Hawaii, GE Capital Alaska and GE Capital Australia are the only business units of GE Capital that are organized geographically. The other 24 run are organized by product lines, offered internationally. The parent GE Capital is a $227 billion subsidiary of Stamford, Conn.-headquartered General Electric Co.

In other news . . .

CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Apple Computer Inc. said it doesn't expect to be profitable in the fiscal fourth quarter and that net sales -- sales minus returns -- will be below year-earlier levels through at least March 1998, Bloomberg News reported.