Bankoh OKs stock split

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Talk about bad timing.

On the first day trading after a two-for-one stock split by Pacific Century Financial Corp. was announced, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged a record 554 points, putting a lid on the bank holding company's stock price.

Shares of Pacific Century, the state's largest financial institution, slipped about 5 percent, or $2.69 a share, to $51 on the New York Stock Exchange today, according to Bloomberg News. Trading was heavy today as more 173,000 shares changed hands.

The company, parent of Bank of Hawaii and other local and international banking and trust businesses, said its board of directors authorized a doubling of the amount of common shares in stockholders' hands through a 100 percent stock dividend Dec. 12 on stock held Nov. 21.

The announcement was made late Friday, after the markets closed.

The stock dividend will give Pacific Century shareholders one additional share of the company for every share they own on the record date.

Pacific Century also announced a regular quarterly cash dividend of 32-1/2 cents a share, also payable Dec. 12 to shareholders of record Nov. 21. The company noted that the dividend applies only to the existing shares held, not the new shares being issued.

Pacific Century's assets reached almost $15 billion in the third quarter. The company has been growing through acquisitions and mergers, such as the July purchase of CU Bancorp in Southern California.

It now has more than 180 offices stretched from Singapore to New York and the South Pacific. In Hawaii, it is also the parent of First Federal Savings and Loan Association of America.

For its latest quarter, which ended Sept. 30, Pacific Century reported a 12.5 percent increase in its net income, compared with the year-earlier quarter. The company said its businesses on the mainland and elsewhere helped it show an improvement despite the flat economy in Hawaii.