Click for larger imageWAILUKU – Maui Land & Pineapple Co.’s unrelenting losses and deep debts could sink the company, according to auditors.
In a report filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, ML&P said auditors found the company’s future jeopardized by its financial losses, weak cash reserves, an inability to meet certain financial obligations and an overall balance sheet that shows the company’s liabilities exceeding its assets by more than $60 million.
ML&P is counting on being able to sell some of its real estate in order to meet its financial obligations and raise cash, but in a down real estate market that plan’s success is uncertain, the report says.
"There can be no assurance that the company will be able to sell real estate assets at acceptable prices, or at all, or that it will be able to maintain compliance with financial covenants, which raises substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern," the report says.
Maui Land & Pineapple also hopes to raise up to $25 million in the form of new investment from existing shareholders. In a separate registration statement filed Monday with the SEC, the company announced its intentions to register a secondary equity offering that would allow current shareholders to buy additional shares of common stock.
Audit: Maui Land & Pineapple future uncertain as liabilities exceed assets by $60 million
Click for Larger ImageOn Wednesday December 30, 2009, 5:14 pm EST
WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP) — Maui Land & Pineapple Co. says its auditors have found the company’s liabilities exceed its assets by more than $60 million, raising doubts about its ability to survive.
The property developer, one of Maui’s biggest landowners, said in a report filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it’s counting on being able to sell some of its real estate to raise cash and meet its financial obligations. But the weak real estate market may thwart those plans.
The uncertainty about real estate sales "raises substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern," the report said.
Maui Land provided the report on Deloitte & Touche’s audit to the SEC Monday, the same day it submitted a registration statement announcing plans to sell more stock to current shareholders.
The auditors found the company’s future was jeopardized by its financial losses, weak cash reserves, an inability to meet certain financial obligations and an overall balance sheet showing the company’s liabilities exceeded its assets.
Maui Land has had to write off all the money it initially invested in the Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences at Kapalua Bay, a luxury condo and hotel development that’s suffered from higher-than-expected default rates and lower revenue forecasts for future sales.
The Hawaii Department of Agriculture said Wednesday it is accepting applications for lease negotiations on five parcels of ag land.
Two parcels are located in Hanapepe, Kauai, and three are in Waimanalo, Oahu. They range in size from 1.4 to 6.7 acres.
Potential lessees must be U.S. citizens who have been Hawaii residents for at least three years, and bona fide farmers as defined in Hawaii Administrative Rules.
The leases are for 35-year terms and are limited to diversified agriculture use.
The deadline to submit applications for the parcels to the state’s Agricultural Resource Management Division is Jan. 14.
Maui distillery serves up a sip of history By HARRY EAGAR, Staff Writer
POSTED: December 27, 2009
MAKAWAO – Hilo Hattie sang about the cockeyed mayor of Kaunakakai, who "drank a gallon of oke to make life worthwhile."
But it couldn’t have happened recently, since genuine okolehao has not been distilled (legally, anyway) for at least 40 years and probably longer.
Haleakala Distillers, Maui’s only rum-maker, is introducing Maui Okolehao Liqueur, made from ti root grown in East Maui, and enhanced with evaporated cane juice from Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co.
Only 200 cases were made, and master distiller Jim Sargent said it may take nine months before another batch comes through.
His wife and managing director, Leslie Sargent, said it has been so long since anybody made "oke" that there was no information to be found about how to do it.
"The whole process had to be derived from scratch," said Jim Sargent, a.k.a. Braddah Kimo. "We have taken quite some time to distill an authentic, 100 percent Maui-made all natural spirit."
Because of federal liquor regulations, the tipple is a liqueur, rather than the skullbuster that was invented in the 19th century.
Drivers passing by a stretch of Farrington Highway in Waialua on Oahu’s North Shore likely have seen a field of sunflowers reminiscent of a Van Gogh painting.
Pioneer Hi-Bred International of Iowa, a biotech seed company, planted the bright yellow sunflowers on 85 acres for a three-month period this year as part of its operations.
The sunflowers were planted in mid-October and likely will finish blooming this week, according to Pioneer Hi-Bred spokeswoman Cindy Goldstein. It is the fifth year in a row Pioneer has planted the sunflowers, which include up to 28 different hybrid varieties.
The sunflower seeds are evaluated for quality standards in Hawaii, and if approved, the same varieties are grown and harvested in California.
"Hawaii serves a vital role because we can do a very quick grow-out here as part of quality production and get quick results to report back," said Goldstein.
Hawaii has the ideal climate and growing conditions for sunflowers year-round.
The seeds, according to Goldstein, are then sold to Midwestern farmers, who crush them to make sunflower oil, which is in high demand in European markets.
I think 6% of income is too high. I don’t think it should be based on income. It makes more sense to base it on age, just like younger drivers pay more for car insurance, it makes sense that older people pay a little more.
This comment was offered in a conversation at the web site, Change.org in response to a post by Gillian Hubble.
I can’t disagree more.
Premiums absolutely should be based on income and absolutely should not be based on age. I say that not just because I am in the 60+ age bracket and you likely are not. I say that because of my 25+ years in employee benefits. However, I do agree that there should be a penalty for delayed enrollment similar to what Medicare Part B imposes.
When you come right down to it, the whole health care debate boils down to two issues. How do you expand health care coverage and how do you pay for health care.
Expanding coverage is important because it spreads the risk among the sick and the healthy equally.
The next time you hear a Republican or a teabagger complain that President Obama is moving the United States closer to "fascism and socialism" (despite the two philosophies being ideologically opposite of one another), remember this: some of these same people are taking thousands of dollars in a form of "socialism" that we usually don’t think about: farm subsidies.
For those not in the know, farm subsidies are when the government pays farmers and businesses in the agricultural field to (a) supplement income, (b) manage commodity supply, and (c) influence commodity cost.
Here’s the dirty little secret: some politicians, mostly Republicans but also a few Democrats, figured out how to make tons of money off of this "socialism for the wealthy." It also comes as no coincidence that most of these particular politicians come from largely rural states.
Deal in works for new, smaller company to farm golden fruit
By ILIMA LOOMIS, Staff Writer
POSTED: December 24, 2009
WAILUKU
Fieldworkers picked their last pineapples Wednesday as Maui Pineapple Co. ceased operations after 100 years of farming.
About 285 Maui Pine workers are being laid off in the shutdown, with their last official day of employment Dec. 31. Another 133 employees were expected to be offered positions at Maui Land & Pineapple partner companies.
Some remained hopeful a startup company would take over Maui Pine land, equipment and operations to continue pineapple farming on Maui and hire back some of the laid-off workers.
Sorry Bo. The first family may be vacationing in Hawaii this holiday season, but the first dog will be stuck in cold, snowy D.C.
The Hawaii Department of Agriculture said that the Portuguese water dog will not be allowed into the state thanks to strict anti-rabies quarantine rules.
Had the family elected to bring Bo, he would have had to either spend 120 days in quarantine or endure two rounds of rabies vaccinations and a 120-day waiting period.
The Honolulu Advertiser also notes that Bo "would have been subject to Hawai’i’s sometimes contradictory leash laws. City ordinances require dogs to be leashed on Kailua Beach — and their owners to clean up their feces. But the State Department of Land and Natural Resources — which has jurisdiction over the ocean — allows dogs to swim in the water without leashes, Laura Stevens, DLNR’s education and outreach coordinator, said today."
