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Who's the county's most powerful player?

by Anthony Pignataro

November 08, 2007

TESORO BAD!

You’d think being the owner and operator of the largest oil refinery in the great state of Hawai`i would pretty much set you for life, but apparently that doesn’t seem to be the case. Catastrophically bad news this week for Tesoro, which made a paltry, measly, miniscule $47 million profit this last quarter—a whopping 82.8 percent lower than the $274 million net earnings the company raked in last during the third quarter of 2006. The reason, according to the Nov. 2 Honolulu Star-Bulletin, was that “lagging price provisions on some of its contracts that didn’t keep up with soaring prices” for the crude oil used by its Kapolei refinery. So sad—an oil refinery being knocked around by the soulless market like that…



RANK PREVIOUS COMPANY

1 2 Alexander & Baldwin 

2 3 Monsanto Hawai`i

3 1 Tesoro Hawai`i

4 4 Dowling Co. 

5 5 Weinberg Foundation 

6 6 Maui Land & Pineapple Co.

7 7 Wailuku Water Co.

8 8 Goodfellow Brothers

9 9 Maui Electric Co.

10 10 Hawaiian Telcom



A&B GOOD!

Tesoro’s drop puts A&B in the top slot at a fortuitous moment: that company’s third quarter earnings show a 76 percent increase in profits over the same period last year. Granted, the real estate giant’s stupendous third quarter profit ($49.1 million) barely tops Tesoro’s horrendous earnings figure, but still, when you only did $27.9 million in the same period last year, it’s hard to see a downside. A&B apparently earned such money by unloading, among other properties, its Fairway Shops in Ka`anapali and Napili Marketplace, which makes us wonder if maybe good times would return to Tesoro if it started dumping a few gas stations. MTW