BUSINESS BRIEFS
New cruise ship being outfitted
Advertiser Staff and News Services
NCL America's new ship, the Pride of Hawai'i, was floated out of a roofed building dock at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany on Sunday and is now berthed at the shipyard's outfitting pier where all remaining work will be done.
The 93,500-ton Pride of Hawai'i will undergo sea trials March 15 through March 19.
The ship will become part of NCL America's fleet in April 2006. The Pride of Hawai'i will join NCL's Pride of Aloha and Pride of America in offering seven-day, interisland cruises.
KAHALA SALE BOLSTERS PROFITS
Mandarin Oriental International Ltd., which manages luxury hotels in Asia, Europe and the Americas, said profit almost tripled last year because of a one-time gain from the sale of its stake in the Kahala Mandarin Oriental.
Earnings rose to $77.2 million, or 8.14 cents per share, from a restated $28.5 million, or 3.35 cents, in 2004, the Hong Kong-based company said in a statement. The earnings beat analysts' expectations.
Sales were $815.4 million, compared with $667.3 million.
The company will pay a final dividend of 1.5 cents per share, compared with 1 cent last year.
EARNINGS DOWN AT H&R BLOCK
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — H&R Block Inc., the nation's largest tax preparer, said the costs of settling a number of class-action suits and slower-than-expected business in its tax and mortgage arms caused its third-quarter profit to drop 68 percent and forced the company to lower its estimates for annual revenue.
In addition, H&R Block said yesterday it will restate earnings for fiscal 2004 and 2005, as well as the first two quarters of this year, to correct accounting errors that it said led to the company's understating its income tax liability last year by $32 million.
For the three months ending Jan. 31, the Kansas City-based company posted earnings of $28.9 million, or 9 cents per share, compared to $92.3 million, or 28 cents per share, during the same period a year ago.
