The owners of approximately 84 percent of total outstanding Hawaiian Electric Industries shares participated in a vote on the company’s sale to Florida-based NextEra Energy Inc., granting the necessary approval for the deal to move forward.

A total of 90,489,276 shares were voted out of 107,416,201 outstanding shares, according to a Thursday HEI filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The participation led to 76 percent of total outstanding shares voting in favor of the sale, one percent more than the 75 percent required by Hawaii state law for the deal to move forward.

A total of 81,207,342 shares voted for the sale, and 7,423,525 or 7 percent of outstanding shares voted against. Of the voted shares, 1,858,409 abstained (did not vote for or against) NextEra’s purchase of HEI.

The owners of about 16 percent, or 16,926,925 shares, did not vote.