Electric Earnings

New Mexico Business Journal, Sept, 2001

There are plenty of companies around the country experiencing down quarters, to be sure, but not at Public Service Company of New Mexico, which told share-holders that for the first six months of the year, net earnings totaled $113.1 million, or $2.64 a diluted share, up from $39.9 million, or $1 a share, in the comparable period last year. That's the result of the strong energy demand. PNM figures that earnings for the full year will be between $4.25 and $4.50 a share and about $3.50 a share annually beginning in 2002.

And BancWest Corp., parent company of Bank of the West and First Hawaiian Bank, the Hawaii-based, French-owned company (BNP Paribas) with New Mexico operations, reported net income of $127.7 million for the first half of the year, up 23.5 percent from last year's equivalent period. Diluted earnings per share for the period were $1.01, up 21.7 percent. BNP Paribas, incidentally, with assets of $652 billion, is France's largest bank and the world's seventh largest. Nice to have a little Gallic influence in New Mexico. Bishop Lamy would be pleased.