Residential real estate brokerage franchise Century 21 has added a fourth independent franchisee in Hawaii.
The local firm iProperties Hawaii, led by Abe Lee, has become an independently owned and operated franchise under the international brand and is now known as Century 21 iProperties Hawaii.
The re-branded business remains at 1585 Kapiolani Blvd.
Century 21 Real Estate LLC has about 7,450 franchised offices in 79 countries and territories.
Sempra Energy bids $9.45B for Texas utility
SAN DIEGO >> Sempra Energy is buying Texas power transmitter Oncor for $9.45 billion in cash, wresting it away from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
Sempra said Monday that it also will pick up $9.35 billion of the company’s debt. To gain possession of Oncor, Sempra will acquire the reorganized Energy Future Holdings Corp. Energy Future entered bankruptcy in 2014, saddled with more than $40 billion in debt due to cratering energy prices.
Berkshire Hathaway said last month that it would buy Oncor for $9 billion, and last week it stuck to that bid. Hedge fund Elliott Management, which owns a significant portion of Oncor’s debt, opposed Berkshire’s takeover bid, saying it wasn’t enough. But Berkshire Hathaway stood firm on its offer, saying last week that it would not be increasing the bid.
Sempra expects to close the sale in the first half of next year. The deal still needs the approval of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Delaware, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and U.S. Department of Justice.
This is the fourth time that that an acquisition attempt has been made for Oncor. There was Berkshire Hathaway’s offer last month. Previously, Texas regulators in April rejected a proposed $18 billion sale of Oncor to NextEra Energy Inc. That price tag included debt. Regulators failed to accept that the NextEra transaction was in the public interest — a requirement for the deal.
In July 2016 the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission rejected NextEra’s $4.3 billion bid for Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., similarly saying it was not in the public interest.
A buyout attempt last year backed by the Ray Hunt family of Dallas also faltered.
ON THE MOVE
Atlas Insurance Agency has hired the following three people:
>> Kimberli Sakamoto is the new sales account manager for the company’s Personal Lines Division. Sakamoto has eight years of insurance industry experience.
>> Slayde Omura is the agency’s new marketing specialist. Omura was previously part of the inaugural internship program that was launched in January at Atlas.
>> Greg Matsuura is the agency’s new Commercial Lines Account manager assistant within the Operations Unit. Matsuura was previously an intern in Atlas’ inaugural internship program.
