Hawaiian Electric Industries’ profit in the third quarter more than doubled from the year prior to $127.1 million, thanks to a fat breakup fee that Florida-based NextEra Energy Inc. paid HEI after their proposed merger collapsed.
| THIRD-QUARTER NET
$127.1 million
YEAR-EARLIER NET
$50.7 million
|
HEI said Friday that NextEra’s $90 million payment added $63.8 million to the company’s bottom line after taxes.
In July the state Public Utilities Commission rejected NextEra’s purchase of HEI due to concerns about mainland control and doubts about NextEra’s commitment to the state’s renewable-energy goals. Hawaii law says the electricity HEI sells must come from 100 percent renewable sources by 2045.
In addition to the $90 million breakup fee, NextEra reimbursed HEI $5 million for transaction expenses. HEI is the parent company of Hawaii’s largest electricity utility and American Savings Bank.
HEI’s revenue for the quarter totaled $646.1 million, down 10 percent from $717.2 million in the third quarter of 2015. HEI’s $127 million profit, or $1.17 a share, compared with its year-ago profit of $50.7 million, or 47 cents a share.
The company paid $51.6 million in income taxes for the third quarter compared with $29.5 million in the prior-year quarter.
HEI President and CEO Constance Lau said the money from NextEra will be used to help fund clean-energy initiatives.
“The NextEra Energy termination payment will support HEI’s investments in our community and projects our utility is undertaking to reliably integrate more renewable energy for its customers,” she said.
Year to date, HEI has spent approximately $230 million on projects to modernize the electricity grid and integrate more renewable energy, Lau said.
Paul Patterson, financial analyst at New York-based Glenrock Associates, said the termination agreement was the one “silver lining” to the failed buyout.
“This is a substantial cash payment for a company the size of Hawaiian Electric,” Patterson said. “That is the silver lining, that they did negotiate in terms of the merger agreement a substantial termination payment.”
Excluding the payment from NextEra, HEI’s core earnings for the third quarter were $63.3 million, up from $52.4 million for the third quarter of 2015.
HEI serves about 95 percent of Hawaii’s population through electrical utilities on Oahu, Maui, Molokai and Hawaii island. These utilities contributed $46.9 million in net income for HEI during the second quarter, up from $43 million a year earlier.
As a regulated utility, HEI regularly makes investments in equipment and other systems serving its customers and recoups its costs through customer billing.
HEI will be asking the state for a rate increase at each of its three utilities: Hawaii Electric Light Co. on the Big Island, Maui Electric Co., and Hawaiian Electric Co. on Oahu.
“By the time we file for all three of our utilities, each will not have had base-rate increases for six years,” Lau said.
On Sept. 19 HELCO filed a rate case application requesting a base-rate increase of $19.3 million, or 6.5 percent. If approved by the PUC, a typical residential customer on the Big Island using 500 kilowatt-hours per month will see a $9.31 increase on their monthly bill.
Lau said the increase “will be used to pay for higher operating costs including an extensive tree trimming and removal program that has improved storm resilience. It will also help pay for system upgrades that improve reliability and integrate more renewable energy and for customer service improvement.”
Lau said HECO will file a rate case by year-end 2016, and MECO is expected to file sometime next summer.
American Savings, HEI’s bank subsidiary, produced $15.1 million in net income in the second quarter compared with $13.5 million a year earlier.
Lau said American Savings saw excellent deposit growth and higher net interest income but that the amount the bank set aside for potential loan losses was higher than expected.
Shares of HEI stock closed Friday at $28.78. The company reported its earnings after the market closed.
