Local real estate, ocean transportation and agriculture company Alexander & Baldwin Inc. today announced earning a second-quarter profit of $12.6 million, down from $29.6 million in the same quarter last year.
Revenue also was down, to $355.1 million for the three-month period ended June 30 from $460.5 million a year earlier.
W. Allen Doane, chairman and chief executive officer of A&B, said the company’s second-quarter performance improved considerably from the first quarter principally from a return to profitability for subsidiary Matson Navigation Co.
Increased real estate sales, which are less affected by seasonality than Matson’s business, also contributed to improved earnings over the first quarter.
The improvements in ocean transportation and real estate, however, were partially offset by poor performance in A&B’s agribusiness division as well as the pervasive impacts of the national and global recession.

“In response to the difficult economic environment, we have taken necessary measures this year to better align our cost structure with the realities of today’s lower levels of demand,” Doane said in a statement. “These efforts are producing tangible results. The company remains on solid financial ground.”
Looking ahead, Doane said financial results for the rest of this year are expected to be “choppy.”