Amfac to Sell Operations Outside Hawaii

Amfac Inc., a San Francisco firm that is one of the largest landowners in Hawaii, put its far-flung non-Hawaiian operations up for sale Sunday.

Amfac said it was looking for a buyer for its food, hotel and wholesale distribution businesses. To raise cash, the company is looking for a partner to invest in its sugar plantations and to help it develop its vast Hawaiian properties.

The company also said that Ronald R. Sloan, 52, resigned from its board. Sloan was fired as president and chief executive Nov. 20.

Richard L. Griffith, 55, an Amfac executive vice president and chairman of its Amfac-Hawaii unit, was named Amfac president and chief executive Sunday. He was named to the board last month.

In an interview, Amfac Chairman Henry A. Walker Jr. said the company is selling businesses to “to enhance shareholder value.” He said the firm isn’t a takeover target.

Amfac is the nation’s sixth largest distributor of prescription drugs and the nation’s seventh largest distributor of electrical supplies. It owns Lamb-Weston, the third largest frozen potato processor, and Monterey Mushrooms, a large mushroom producer operating in Watsonville and Morgan Hill, Calif.

Amfac’s hotels outside Hawaii are the Fred Harvey resorts in the Grand Canyon and Death Valley, the Silverado Country Club in Napa Valley and the Elkhorn Resort in Sun Valley, Ida.

The company said its investment bankers, Morgan Stanley and Salomon Bros., estimate it could receive $600 million to $750 million cash from the restructuring. However, Amfac said it has not obtained an independent appraisal.

As part of its restructuring, Amfac said it may spin off Lamb-Weston to Amfac shareholders and merge it with a third party.

For the nine months ending Sept. 30, Amfac had earnings of $15 million on revenue of $1.6 billion. The company owns 56,400 acres of land in Hawaii and has leases on another 94,500 acres there. It employs 20,000.