Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., the parent company of American Savings Bank and three major electrical utilities in the state, said Thursday its fourth-quarter earnings rose 27.3 percent even as it spent $2.2 million related to its proposed sale to Florida-based NextEra Energy Inc.
Costs associated with the deal, including the potential spinoff of the bank, were $15.8 million in 2015 compared with $4.9 million in the year before.
FOURTH-QUARTER NET
$42.3 million
YEAR-EARLIER NET
$33.3 million
HEI said it earned $42.3 million, or 39 cents a share, last quarter compared with $33.3 million, or 32 cents a share, in the year-earlier period when costs associated with the proposed sale were $4.3 million. Revenue declined 21 percent to $624 million from $790 million.
For the full year, the company’s earnings fell 4.9 percent to $160 million, or $1.50 a share, from $168 million, or $1.63 a share, in 2014. Revenue decreased 19.6 percent to $2.6 billion from $3.2 billion in 2014.
HEI paid approximately $33.3 million in dividends to shareholders in the fourth quarter and approximately $132 million for the year. The company, which pays 31 cents a share for its dividend, had 107.5 million shares outstanding at the end of last year.
Connie Lau, HEI president and chief executive officer, said in a news release she looks forward to partnering with NextEra.
“We are looking forward to working with NextEra Energy as a partner to help accelerate Hawaii’s clean energy transformation,” Lau said. “We also announced the related spinoff of American Savings Bank, and we are confident that American, as a new, publicly-traded entity, will provide benefits for our Hawaii customers and communities.”
The company announced in December 2014 that NextEra plans to purchase HEI’s electric utilities for $4.3 billion. The proposed purchase is waiting for a decision from the state’s Public Utilities Commission. HEI shareholders and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have approved the sale.
In the fourth quarter, HEI’s electric utilities saw a profit of $33 million, up from $29 million during the same period in 2014.
Serving 90 percent of the state’s population, the utilities had a full-year net income of $135.7 million compared with $137.6 million in 2014. HEI said the $1.9 million decrease from the prior year was primarily due to the utilities increasing investments in renewable energy, improved customer reliability and greater system efficiency.
“We remain focused on further reducing costs for our customers by vigilantly managing expenses, and increasing customer choice and engagement in Hawaii’s move to 100 percent renewable energy by designing new time-of-use rates and demand-response programs,” Lau said.
Lau said HEI had a successful quarter adding more renewables to the state’s portfolio.
“Our continuing efforts to push the boundaries of renewable energy integration helped us achieve an energy portfolio powered by 22 percent renewable sources in 2015, exceeding Hawaii’s 2015 Renewable Portfolio Standard target of 15 percent,” Lau said. “Thirteen percent of our customers now have customer-sited solar, a level of integration that leads the nation.”
Lau said despite lower oil prices in 2015 reducing the average residential bill by 18 percent, the utility needs to move away from its dependence on oil.
“It’s important that we continue to reduce our state’s exposure to future oil price volatility and price increases,” Lau said.
HEI subsidiary American Savings Bank reported last month that its full-year 2015 net income was $54.7 million, up from $51.3 million in 2014. Fourth-quarter net income was $15 million, up from $12 million in 2014.
“Our bank delivered solid financial results in 2015, producing healthy loan growth with good credit quality while maintaining its capital levels. Our bank continues to make investments to continually improve the customer experience and is well positioned to continue to grow in 2016,” Lau said.
