NextEra-HEI buyout agreement expires | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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Public Utilities Commision Chair Randy Iwase

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Now they can walk away.

The contract between NextEra Energy Inc. and Hawaiian Electric Industries passed its second expiration date Friday. The Florida- based company has been working to buy HEI for $4.3 billion since December 2014. The sale’s contract met its first deadline one year later, only to be extended for six months to get approval from Hawaii state regulators.

Now the 18-month deadline between HEI and NextEra has passed, and the companies are still waiting for a stamp of approval from the state Public Utilities Commission. PUC Chairman Randy Iwase said Friday his agency was not going to issue a decision on the deadline day, but might rule on the case by the end of this month.

NextEra declined to comment Friday on what happens now that the contract has expired. HEI declined to comment.

HEI President and CEO Connie Lau said last month that the merger agreement can “continue on” even if Friday’s deadline came and went.

Lau also said NextEra is liable to pay HEI roughly $95 million if the sale fails to get regulatory approval and NextEra walks away.

Doubts among analysts over whether NextEra can overcome local opposition to its proposed buyout of HEI increased leading up to the deadline.

“The merger faces long odds against deep-seated local opposition in the Aloha State,” Peter Cohn, an analyst with Height Securities LLC, wrote in a research note Friday. “We don’t see a path for the NextEra-Hawaiian Electric merger coming to fruition.”

Gov. David Ige first announced his opposition to the sale in July and has remained against the deal throughout.

If the deadline passes without a regulatory decision, “the question is will NextEra pick up its marbles and go home,” said Paul Patterson, an analyst with Glenrock Associates LLC in New York. “It looks a little challenging.”

The end of the contract allows HEI to participate in discussions or negotiations with other suitors. Some in the energy community, including state Rep. Chris Lee (D, Kailua-Waimanalo), chairman of the Committee on Energy and the Environment, said that other companies have shown interest in buying HEI.

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Bloomberg News contributed to this story.