Hawai'i trust sees WCI stock boom
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Kamehameha Schools' investment in Florida development company WCI Communities Inc. paid big dividends this week when WCI raised more than $130 million in an initial public stock offering.
WCI Communities Inc.'s shares rose 19 percent after the stock sale for the builder of residential communities and luxury condominium towers in Florida. Shares of WCI rose $3.67 to $22.67 in New York trading.
The offering raised the value of the 7.1 million shares owned by Kamehameha Activities Association, a subsidiary of Kamehameha Schools, to $160 million. Kamehameha, the largest single shareholder, with more than 16 percent of WCI shares, invested in the Bonita Springs, Fla., company in 1995. Kamehameha Schools' initial investment in WCI was worth about $37 million, trust officials said.
The Kamehameha Schools trust and its subsidiaries have about $3 billion invested in stocks, bonds and other securities. The value of its WCI investment now makes up about 5 percent of that portfolio, which is the main asset base for the $4.4 billion non-profit network of private schools serving Hawaiians.
The trust has not decided what to do with its stock after the expiration of a six-month "lock-out" period, after which initial investors in WCI can sell shares, said Wally Chin, president of Kamehameha Activities Association.
The Standard & Poor's Supercomposite Homebuilding Index is up 63 percent over the past 12 months as interest rates fell below 7 percent, leading to a record year in homes sold.
"They are taking advantage of a window of opportunity, with the market paying more attention to homebuilding stocks than in the past because of the very attractive fundamental environment for housing," said Scott Campbell, a homebuilding analyst with Raymond James & Associates Inc.
WCI originally filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public Sept. 7, a plan that was delayed by the terrorist attacks four days later. The shares sold represent a 16 percent stake. The IPO values WCI at $822 million.
The company, which traces its roots back to 1946, was once a unit of Westinghouse Electric Corp. The company is now headed by chief executive officer Alfred Hoffman, 67, who was the national co-chairman of finance for George W. Bush's presidential campaign.
Citigroup Inc.'s venture capital unit, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Kamehameha Activities Association own about 43 percent of the shares.
A Bloomberg News story was used in this report.
