By Lauren Pollock
NextEra Energy Inc. agreed to acquire most of Hawaiian Electric
Industries Inc. for about $2.6 billion, a deal it said would bring
cleaner, renewable energy to Hawaii.
Hawaiian Electric supplies power to about 450,000 customers, or
95% of Hawaii's population, through its electric utilities, and
provides an array of banking services through American Savings
Bank, which isn't included in the deal. The banking unit will be
spun off into a separate publicly traded company.
The offer values Hawaiian at $33.50 a share, including the value
of American Savings Bank, which was pegged at about $8 a share, and
the payment of a one-time special dividend. It excludes the
assumption of about $1.7 billion in debt and marks a 19% premium to
Wednesday's close.
NextEra, a Florida-based clean-energy company has multiple
subsidiaries, including Florida Power & Light and NextEra
Energy Resources. In September, the company withdrew an offer to
acquire the shares that the struggling Energy Future Holdings Corp.
held in Oncor, a Texas transmissions business. Neither company has
said whether NextEra has definitively walked away or is still
interested in competing.
In October, it reported its revenue grew 5.9% in the third
quarter on customer growth and new contracts.
Write to Lauren Pollock at lauren.pollock@wsj.com
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