HEI earns $23.2 million,
maintains dividend

The firm, which earlier exited
its international operations, improved
in its utility and bank units

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. today announced a fourth-quarter profit of $23.2 million, or 67 cents a share, compared to a loss of $24.4 million, or 74 cents a share, in a year earlier.

Some of the year-over year change was due to a one-time charge in the 2000 quarter, but both its electric utility business and its savings and loan subsidiary, American Savings Bank, showed a strong improvement.

HEI today also said it is maintaining its quarterly dividend at 62 cents a share. The next one is payable March 11 to shareholders of record Feb. 13. the dividend's current annualized yield is 6.2 percent.

The company reported a fourth-quarter operating profit from its utility business of $41.6 million, up 13.7 percent from $36.6 million in the last quarter of 2000. American Savings showed an operating profit of $24.9 million in the latest quarter, up 41.5 percent from a year-earlier $17.6 million.

HEI took a $36.6 million after-tax loss taken in the final quarter of 2000 as it wrote off its investment in an electricity-generating business in the Philippines. Without that charge, HEI would have shown a profit of $12.2 million for the 2000 quarter.

HEI subsequently got out of the international power business, closing that division down Sept. 30 2001.

In the latest quarter, HEI sold a wholly owned subsidiary, HEI Power Guam, to New York Stock Exchange-listed Mirant for what it said was a nominal profit. The Guam operation had been formed to repair, manage and operate two 25-megawatt generating plants for the Guam Power Authority.

Fourth-quarter revenues fell 9.4 percent to $419.3 million from $462.6 million in the 2000 quarter, as a result of disposing of the subsidiaries during 2001.

For all of 2001, HEI had a profit of $83.7 million, or $2.47 a share, on revenues of $1.73 billion, compared to a net profit for 2000, after the Philippines write-off, of $45.7 million, or $1.40 a share, on revenues of $1.73 billion.

"The downturn in Hawaii tourism post-September 11 continues to present challenges to maintaining earnings. We managed to meet these challenges in 2001 through cost containment efforts at the utility and active asset and liability management at the bank," said Robert F. Clarke, HEI chairman, president and chief executive officer.