NextEra Energy Inc., the Florida-based company looking to buy Hawaiian Electric Industries, said Wednesday its third-quarter profit jumped 33.2 percent to $879 million primarily due to new investments at its utility and energy development subsidiaries.

The company reported earnings per share of $1.93 compared with $1.50 a share in the year-earlier period, when it made $660 million.

“NextEra Energy delivered solid operational and financial performance for the third quarter,” Jim Robo, chief executive officer of NextEra, said in a statement.

NextEra’s Florida utility, Florida Power & Light, reported a profit of $489 million in the quarter, up from $462 million the year before. NextEra Energy Resources, an energy wholesaler and leader in wind energy generation, posted a profit of $375 million, up from $204 million.

NextEra is waiting on the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission to approve its $4.3 billion purchase of Hawaii’s main electric utility. Robo said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call that NextEra is working to win approval from the PUC.

“We continue to work hard to get the final hurdle, which is state regulatory approval in Hawaii,” Robo said. “We have recently gotten a couple intervenors to either fall away or announce their support, and I was very pleased that the IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) announced their support for the transaction last week. And we continue to work it. I think my expectation, based on timing right now, is that we’re not going to get any kind of decision from the (PUC) until next year, and so we’re going to continue to work it and continue to talk to the parties to try to get it across the finish line.”

The review of the sale is heading into the final stage as Tuesday marked the last of seven public listening sessions hosted by the PUC on all major islands.

Tuesday’s session was held on Oahu; 59 speakers were opposed to the sale and 47 voiced support, while six were neutral, according to data from Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental group.

That was a major improvement for NextEra compared with the listening sessions on the neighbor islands. At the first session Sept. 4 on Maui, there were 32 speakers opposed to the sale, 11 in support and six neutral.

“NextEra clearly spent loads of time and money since the neighbor island sessions and worked to put on a big show for the Oahu session,” said Isaac Moriwake, attorney for Earthjustice, who is representing the Sierra Club in the PUC review of the proposed purchase of HEI. “When the PUC opened up the mic, their supporters immediately stood and lined up as if on cue.”

NextEra Energy paid several local law firms, public relations companies and consultants more than $21 million as of July 31 to help with the sale, according to a company filing with the PUC last month.

NextEra listed Kaimana Hila, a consulting firm owned by Jennifer Sabas, longtime aide to the late U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, as one of the companies it hired in June.

Another it hired was DTL LLC. The Honolulu-base consulting firm received $84,000 from NextEra.

“Various testifiers in support were directly connected to DTL, the consultant company that NextEra hired for community organizing,” Moriwake said.

DTL is managed by Honolulu-based WCIT Architecture, according to the Business Registration Division of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. Rob Iopa, president of WCIT, spoke in favor of the sale Tuesday night at the listening session.

Iopa is also a director for Makai Ocean Engineering Inc. Duke Hartman, vice president of business development at Makai Ocean Engineering, also spoke Tuesday night in favor of the sale.

Many speakers in favor of the sale were from unions that recently announced their support for NextEra.

“NextEra is clearly amping up the political game, like we’ve seen in Florida. Really, this is just the beginning, and if this takeover goes through we can be certain it’ll just get worse,” Moriwake said. “But, whether such tactics will work in Hawaii to ‘gain momentum’ and sway the PUC and the people of Hawaii is another issue entirely.”

Rob Gould, spokesman for NextEra Energy, said nobody was paid to be at the meeting Tuesday.

“Anyone who came to voice support for the transaction was there of their own free will,” he said.

Gould said NextEra didn’t do anything different for the Oahu session from what it did for the neighbor islands.

“What we saw last night is the product of engagement and what we’re seeing as more and more people learn about the potential benefits of the transaction, particularly where it is free of the political rhetoric, they’re more inclined to support the transaction,” Gould said. “As we have been able to engage, speak one-on-one with customers with business owners, with community leaders, there has been a really good dialogue. When they start to hear what we’re proposing, they seem to start to embrace it.”

The next step in the PUC approval process is a series of trial-like hearings starting Nov. 30. Gould said NextEra looks forward to the hearing process.

“Unfortunately there have been a lot of things said about the company and about our commitment to Hawaii and about our track record that simply do not align with reality,” Gould said. “We have found that the only way that we can show our commitment and correct the record is to engage one-on-one.”