Anchorage Daily News

Bristol Bay Native Corp. generated more than $1 billion in revenue for the second year in a row this year.

The Anchorage-based company posted revenue of $1.3 billion, up 29 percent, as its Pacific Northwest fuel sales and government contracting businesses showed strong sales growth for its fiscal year, which ended March 31.

But weak returns from its $89 million stock portfolio continued to depress profits, which totaled $5 million, down 69 percent from the year before, according to Bristol Bay's recent annual report.

The company is one of only two Alaska Native corporations that have hit the $1 billion mark.

Arctic Slope Regional Corp. was the first -- crossing that threshold in 2000.

A couple of others -- NANA Regional Corp. Inc. and Chugach Alaska Corp. -- flirted with the $1 billion mark last year but didn't quite hit it.

Bristol Bay's revenue has tripled in the past three years, largely due to the rapid growth of a commercial fuel sales distributorship it owns in the Pacific Northwest, and, to a lesser extent, its government contract awards.

Fuel sales totaled $994 million, up 25 percent. Contract revenue -- largely for government services -- reached $291 million, up 48 percent.

The company called its stock market returns "disappointing." But the annual report noted that Bristol Bay did make money in the market while the index it benchmarks itself against fell in value.

The reduced profit also resulted from low profit margins at its fuel distributorship, Petrocard Systems Inc., the company said in its annual report to shareholders.

Bristol Bay Native Corp. represents roughly 8,100 shareholders of Aleut, Eskimo and Athabascan descent who reside in or have roots in the Bristol Bay region of Southwest Alaska.

It is one of 13 regional corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971. The federal law settled Native claims to most of Alaska's land, creating the Native-owned companies and seeding them with land and cash.

Bristol Bay owns 30 subsidiary companies, and roughly 13 percent of its employees in Alaska are shareholders.

Find Elizabeth Bluemink online at adn.com/contact/ebluemink or call 257-4317.

ADVERTISEMENT