Merger expenses hurt NextEra’s earnings

Juno Beach, Fla.-based NextEra Energy Inc., the energy company that state regulators prevented from purchasing Hawaiian Electric Industries, said Monday its third-quarter profit was $753 million — down 14 percent from the year prior due in part to merger-related expenses.

In the third quarter of 2015, NextEra reported a profit of $879 million. The company reported spending $123 million on merger-related expenses last quarter.

NextEra had to pay $95 million to Hawaiian Electric Industries — the parent company of HECO — after the company failed to get approval from the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission for its $4.3 billion proposed purchase of the state’s largest electrical utility.

NextEra did not give a breakdown of the $123 million in merger-related expenses, and the company is involved in another major potential merger in Texas.

NextEra said Monday it reached an agreement for one of its affiliates to buy Texas Transmission Holdings Corp. The acquisition would result in NextEra owning approximately 20 percent indirect interest in Oncor Electric Delivery Co., the largest owner of high-voltage power lines in Texas. NextEra said in the news release that it would submit an application by today with the Public Utility Commission of Texas requesting approval.

Geothermal firm pays $5.5M settlement

Reno, Nev.-based Ormat Technologies, owner of the geothermal energy conversion plant on Hawaii island, has agreed to pay the United States $5.5 million to resolve allegations that it unlawfully applied for and received millions in federal clean-energy grants.

U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden for the District of Nevada said Friday that Ormat, its subsidiaries and the United States entered into the agreement.

The settlement agreement comes from a civil lawsuit filed in 2013 that claimed Ormat violated the civil False Claims Act by applying for and receiving grants under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009 for an 8-megawatt Puna Geothermal Power Plant on Hawaii island, the Puna KS-14 Well on Hawaii island and the North Brawley Geothermal Power Plant in Imperial County, Calif.

ON THE MOVE

Alaka’i Development, a Hawaii-based rental residential development firm, has announced that Cayenne Pe’a is their principal. She will oversee the accounting and finance efforts for both the operating assets and private-sector development of AD. Pe’a previously served as a director of finance for Forest City Hawaii and a senior auditor with Deloitte and Touche.

Kaiser Permanente has promoted Garret Sugai to vice president of health plan services and administration for the Hawaii Region. Sugai has served as interim vice president for more than six months as well as held leadership and technical positions since joining Kaiser in 2001. including manager of health plan service and administration, supervisor of regional applications delivery and IT and lead programmer and analyst in the health plan’s information technology department.