Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporters Andrew Gomes and Rob Perez have been honored with a national business journalism award for their team coverage of a planned takeover of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc.

The Society of American Business Editors and Writers announced Friday that the two reporters won in the "Best in Business" competition’s breaking-news category for newspapers with circulation between 100,000 to 200,000. Perez wrote about the skepticism that greeted a startup company’s plan to buy HEI, while Gomes wrote a profile of Roald Marth, the marketer and entrepreneur behind the plan.

was honored with two awards in the same category.

SABEW officials said this year they had 200 winners in 89 categories, with a record-setting 1,030 entries.

It was the second straight year that the Star-Advertiser was honored by the SABEW awards. Last year business reporter Allison Schaefers won two awards, for feature writing and explanatory journalism.