HEI sets May 12 shareholders meeting for NextEra vote

Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. will hold a special shareholders meeting at 9:30 a.m. May 12 to vote on the proposed $4.3 billion acquisition by NextEra Energy Inc., according to an S-4 regulatory filing Tuesday by the Florida-based company. The meeting will be held in Room 805 on the eighth floor of American Savings Bank Tower at 1001 Bishop St. in Hono lulu.

HEI shareholder approval is one of the requisites for the deal to proceed. The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission also needs to approve the acquisition. The spinoff of HEI subsidiary American Savings Bank into a stand-alone company is also subject to various conditions.

If HEI is sold, then Connie Lau, CEO of the state’s dominant utility, will get an estimated $11.6 million in merger-related compensation, the filing said.

Hawaii chefs fail to make cut for 2015 James Beard Awards

The three Hawaii chefs named semifinalists for 2015 James Beard Awards did not make the final cut, according to the list of finalists announced Tuesday.

Michelle Karr-Ueoka of MW Restaurant was among the semifinalists in the Outstanding Pastry Chef Category, while Ed Kenney of town restaurant and Andrew Le of The Pig & the Lady were semifinalists for Best Chef: West.

Hawaii chefs once were nominated in the Northwest division, competing against chefs in states such as Washington and Oregon, but in the West division, any Hawaii chefs who make the list compete against chefs in Nevada as well as Cali for nia, which is home to a great concentration of highly rated restaurants with well-known celebrity chefs.

Best Chef: West finalists this year are San Francisco chefs Matthew Accarrino of SPQR, Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski of State Bird Provisions, and Corey Lee of Benu, as well as Los Angeles chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, of Animal restaurant, and Michael Cimarusti of Providence restaurant.

Award nominees in 59 categories were announced Tuesday. Winners will be announced May 4 at a gala in Chicago.

Local investors give $400,000 to Honolulu-based tech firm

Honolulu-based technology firm Ibis Networks has received $400,000 from a pair of local investors to help the company expand commercial use of its InteliNetwork system, which helps users manage energy consumption of devices plugged into electrical sockets.

Ibis received $350,000 from Ulupono Initiative and $50,000 from the founder of Blue Startups and Blue Planet Foundation, Henk Rogers.

The investments follow a $750,000 grant the company received from the Energy Excelerator, a Hawaii organization created in 2013 to help launch energy startups with backing from the U.S. Department of Energy and Office of Naval Research.

Ibis was spun off as an independent company in 2013 by another Hawaii tech firm, Oceanit, to begin commercializing its technology after field-testing at a dozen pilot projects.

InteliNetwork was launched in October and provides up-to-the-minute energy use data through a network of electrical sockets that can be remotely controlled to reduce energy consumption.

Hawaiian Airlines boosts revenue outlook for quarter

Hawaiian Airlines said its revenue performance won’t decline as much as it previously expected.

The state’s largest carrier said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it expects its operating revenue per available seat mile will improve from its previous guidance issued after the fourth quarter. It credited the improvement to better-than-expected passenger revenue primarily on its North America and international routes as well as better-than-expected revenue from its cargo operations, both in North America and internationally.

Hawaiian Airlines officials said they now expect operating revenue per available seat mile in the quarter ending March 31 to be down 1.5 percent to 3.5 percent, an improvement from being down 3.5 percent to 6.5 percent.

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