Posted on: Tuesday, April 24, 2001
Hawaiian Electric sees drop in earnings
By Glenn Scott
Advertiser Staff Writer
Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. said yesterday its first-quarter earnings dropped 4.2 percent compared with the same quarter last year because of higher maintenance costs and the expense of buying outside power.
HEI, the parent company of Hawaiian Electric Co. and American Savings Bank, said its net income for the three months ended March 31 was $27.7 million, or 84 cents a share, compared with $29 million, or 90 cents a share, during the year-ago quarter.
Robert F. Clarke, the company's chairman, president and chief executive officer, described the results as "mixed," noting that sales of power through HECO rose 1.7 percent, with kilowatt-hour sales reaching 2.2 million largely because of warmer weather.
But HECO's earnings dropped overall by 9.7 percent as the company spent significantly more on maintenance and purchasing fuel oil and power generated elsewhere.
HEI spent $15.2 million for plant overhauls, compared with $12.5 million in the first quarter last year, when company officials said the plant of outside supplier AES Hawaii Inc. in the Campbell Industrial Park was partially off-line.
HECO paid $88.2 million for fuel oil in the first quarter this year, a 17.3 percent increase from the $75.2 million paid in the same quarter last year. But company spokeswoman Suzy Hollinger noted that fuel prices don't affect earnings significantly because those costs are passed on to customers through fees and surcharges.
Power bought from supplier AES reached $81.9 million, a jump of 16.6 percent compared with $70.2 million the same quarter last year.
Earnings from subsidiary American Savings Bank rose to $11.9 million during the first quarter, compared with $11.2 million at the same time in 2000. Interest income rose 5 percent as the bank increased its interest-earning assets, the company said.
Net income from the parent company's international power subsidiaries was relatively flat for the quarter. The company reported $434,000 in net profits after writing off significant expenses at the end of 2000.
