Posted on: Friday, March 25, 2005

Central Pacific awards bonuses

By Deborah Adamson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Five top executives of Central Pacific Financial Corp. received $1.48 million in merger-related bonuses last year, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week.

Clint Arnoldus, the chief executive of Central Pacific Financial, took in a one-time bonus of $1.08 million while four others received $100,000 in executive-retention bonuses related to Central Pacific's merger with CB Bancshares, the parent of City Bank.

The four executives are Neal Kanda, president and chief operating officer of the parent company; Alwyn Chikamoto, executive vice president of commercial real estate at Central Pacific Bank; Blenn Fujimoto, the bank's executive vice president, Hawai'i market; and Denis Isono, the bank's executive vice president of operations and services.

The four will get another $100,000 each on the first anniversary of the merger, if they're still employees.

On Sept. 15, 2004, the day the merger with CB Bancshares closed, Arnoldus was granted 180,000 in stock options with a strike price of $27.50. That is the price at which he can exercise his option to buy the shares. Based on Central Pacific's closing price of $34.40 yesterday, Arnoldus would make a profit of about $1.2 million from a sale if he were fully vested in the options.

The total value of his unexercised in-the-money options at the end of 2004 — stock options that currently would earn him a profit — topped $2.8 million, according to the filing.

As for salary, Arnoldus received $516,692 last year, up 10 percent from the previous year. Kanda had a salary of $244,341 last year, up 11 percent from 2003, plus a bonus of $71,250.

Chikamoto and Fujimoto each took in $191,580, up 4.3 percent from 2003, and bonuses of $48,668 each. Isono's salary was $185,845 in 2004, up 4 percent from the previous year, and he received a bonus of $47,316.

Reach Deborah Adamson at dadamson@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8088.