NEW YORK >> Struggling department store chain Sears says it’s closing even more stores as it tries to turn around its business.

Sears Holdings Corp. CEO Eddie Lampert said in a blog post Friday that the company would close another eight Sears and 35 Kmart stores that are unprofitable by early October. Hundreds of store closings already have been announced this year. (None of the new closures are in Hawaii.) There were 624 Kmart stores and 651 Sears stores as of the end of April.

Berkshire woos Texas utility after NextEra fails

With NextEra Energy Inc. now out of the picture, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is wasting no time trying to win over Texas regulators in its bid for Oncor Electric Delivery Co., the state’s largest electric-transmission operator.

Berkshire is promising an independent board of directors with sole authority over dividends, and will shield Oncor from potential bankruptcy at other Berkshire units, according to a document provided to Bloomberg by Oncor spokesman Geoffrey Bailey. Berkshire announced Friday an agreement to buy Oncor parent Energy Future Holdings Corp. for $9 billion in cash.

Berkshire will be the third company to come before Texas regulators seeking permission to buy a utility that they have so far highly guarded. Just a week ago the state rejected NextEra Energy’s $18 billion bid to buy Oncor for a third time, deciding the merger wasn’t in the public interest. In July 2016 the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission rejected NextEra’s $4.3 billion bid to buy Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., also saying that Next­Era’s bid wasn’t in the public interest.

Last year Texas regulators quashed an offer for Oncor from Hunt Consolidated Inc.

ON THE MOVE

>> Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties has announced the rejoining of Realtor associate Donna Ching, who first joined the firm in 2010. She most recently served as a Realtor associate at Keller Williams. Her experience includes 25 years in management, sales and accounting, and selling real estate since 2008.

>> Straub Medical Center has named John Belew the hospital’s newest chief operating officer. His responsibilities will be to oversee all business and clinical operations of the 159-bed medical center as well as its statewide network of clinics. Belew has extensive experience in the health care and hospital industry, including serving as chief operating officer at Darnall Army Medical Center in Killeen, Texas. He was also chief financial officer and later chief operating officer at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash.

>> Honolulu Financial Planner has announced that John H. Robinson has made the Investopedia Top 100, a list of influential financial advisers based on digital, social and event clout. Investopedia is an online source of financial content with 78 million page views and 27 million visitors each month. Robinson is the owner and founder of Financial Planning Hawaii, based in Honolulu.

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