Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc.’s earnings edged lower in the third quarter as a decline in net income at its bank subsidiary more than offset a modest gain in its utility business.

HEI earned $47.7 million, or 49 cents a share, in the July-through-September quarter, down from $48.4 million, or 50 cents a share, during the same period a year earlier, the company reported Wednesday.

Hawaiian Electric Co. and affiliates Maui Electric Co. and Hawaii Electric Light Co. earned a combined $38.4 million in the third quarter, up from the $38 million they earned during the third quarter of 2011.

Wednesday’s financial report included results for American Savings Bank that HEI originally reported last week. American Savings earned $14.2 million in the third quarter compared with $15.5 million in the year-earlier period. HEI’s utility business is more than three times larger than its banking segment when measured by net income.

"HEI had another solid quarter as we continued to invest in our Hawaii businesses," Constance Lau, the company’s president and chief executive officer, said in a news release. So far this year, HECO has spent $188 million — roughly twice its earnings — on projects to modernize its grid and integrate increasing amounts of alternative energy, Lau said.

American Savings has increased its loan volume by $100 million year-to-date, including a $15 million increase in lending for "clean energy" projects, she said.

Lau noted that HECO’s relatively flat performance in the third quarter was the result of its recovery of costs for reliability and clean energy being largely offset by higher operations and maintenance expenses.

Those expenses were $4 million higher in the current quarter, but were essentially unchanged during the first nine months of the year compared with a year earlier. HEI expects plant maintenance projects in the fourth quarter will push up such full-year expenses 4 percent on a year-over-year basis, according to the news release. That is down from the previously expected 6 percent increase.

HECO also had a favorable tax settlement of $1 million in the third quarter that it did not have a year earlier. That was offset by $1 million in higher depreciation expenses versus a year earlier.

HEI also reported that return on equity, a measure of profitability, rose at HECO and MECO but fell at HELCO. On a consolidated basis, return on equity increased to 8.64 percent at the end of the third quarter from 6.95 percent a year earlier. The Public Utilities Commission allows the HECO companies to earn a return on equity of up to 10 percent.

HEI shares closed down 58 cents at $25.10 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. The results were announced after the market closed.