Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Friday, July 31, 1998

Tour wholesaler's stock rises in debut

Global Vacation Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based company formed to take over three of the biggest companies in the mainland-Hawaii tourist industry, today completed an initial public offering of 3 million shares at $14 each. The stock ended the day up $1 at $15

Earlier this year, Global bought Haddon Holidays Inc., a New Jersey-based seller of Hawaii tours, MTI Vacations Inc., based in Chicago, and Classic Custom Vacations based in San Jose, Calif.

The company also owns two other travel-related companies, Boston-based Globetrotters Inc. and Allied Tours in New York. Global's shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol GVG. It said it will use the $42 million raised by the stock sale to finance expansion. Global said it plans to develop two travel brands in the combined businesses, one selling up-scale customized vacations; the other selling budget-priced tour packages.

Three more Starbucks set to open in isles

The local Starbucks franchisee will open three more Hawaii outlets on Aug. 8 as Seattle-based Starbucks Corp. moves toward a target of 500 new coffee shops in the next 14 months.

The new outlets, owned by local Starbucks licensee Coffee Partners Hawaii, will open in Discovery Bay, Waikiki, the Windward City Shopping Center in Kaneohe and the Mililani Shopping Center West. Coffee Partners said 25 percent of the opening-day revenues will go to local charities. The company already has 12 Starbucks outlets in Hawaii and plans to open in Kona and Manoa later this year.

Matson charters 2 ships for service in Atlantic

Matson Navigation Co. has chartered two of its older container ships to a company in the Florida-Puerto Rico ocean freight business. The SS Kaimoku and the SS Kainalu have both been out of service and tied up on the West Coast since 1996.

Matson, the major subsidiary of Alexander & Baldwin Inc., said the ships will be used by Sea-Barge Line Inc., which is based in Miami. Matson will not be involved in the operation of the ships but is investing in Sea-Barge.

Tosco dropping some mainland gas stations

STAMFORD, Conn. -- Independent oil refiner Tosco Corp., which entered the Hawaii gasoline-retail market earlier this year, said it wants to sell about 300 gasoline stations in four mainland states to focus on areas where it has more stations.

Stamford, Conn.-based Tosco has a network of 5,200 convenience stores and gas stations in 28 states, primarily in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, California, and the Southeast. Analysts estimate the company can get $100 million to $150 million for the 300 stations it wants to sell, which are in Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, and Idaho.

Tosco said the four states are markets where it either has to buy more stations to keep costs down or sell the stations. Fuel transportation and other costs are high when fuel sellers have few gas stations, particularly in big states such as Texas and Idaho.

"It's a refocus of capital and strategy away from areas where they don't have a tremendous presence," said Christopher Stavros, an analyst at PaineWebber Inc., who has a "buy" rating on Tosco shares.

Tosco entered Hawaii's market earlier this year with the purchase of BHP's Gas Express stations.

Northwest Air facing more labor problems

CHICAGO -- The union representing about 27,000 Northwest Airlines Corp. ground workers said today that tentative results show its workers have rejected four of five tentative contracts.

While official results will not be released until Tuesday, the rejections would add to labor woes at Minneapolis-based Northwest, which is at an impasse with its pilots that could lead to a strike that would shut down the nation's fourth-largest airline just before U.S. Labor Day weekend.

In other news . . .

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. plans to have most of its major assembly plants reopened by Wednesday now that the United Auto Workers has ratified agreements ending two crippling strikes. The largest group of idled assembly plants is expected to reopen Monday, with the rest coming back on line Tuesday through Thursday.

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