Hawaiian Electric Industries Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
May 9, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Maui wildfire settlement clarity: Supreme Court decision bars insurer segregation claims, clearing the way for final approval steps by early 2026 and the first $479 million payment.
  • Business simplification through divestitures: HEI sold American Savings Bank and Pacific Current’s Hamakua plant to focus solely on regulated utility operations, improving strategic clarity and liquidity.
  • Improved Q1 financials: Consolidated core net income increased to $39.8 million ($0.23/share) from $28.4 million, driven by better utility heat rates, higher revenue adjustments and lower bad debt expense.
  • Regulatory and legislative advances: Passage of SB897 directs the PUC to cap future wildfire liability and authorize securitization for safety upgrades, while SB1501 establishes a state backstop for clean energy contracts.
  • Strong liquidity and debt reduction: At Q1 end, HEI held ~$622 million of unrestricted cash, $600 million in credit capacity, and retired $384 million of holding-co debt post-ASB sale, underpinning capex and settlement funding.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Hawaiian Electric Industries Q1 2025
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

and thank you for standing by. My name is Regina, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the HEI First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session.

Operator

I would now like to turn the conference over to Matteo Garcia, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Mateo Garcia
Mateo Garcia
Director of Investor Relations at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Thank you. Welcome everyone to HEI's first quarter twenty twenty five earnings call. Joining me today are Scott Few, HEI President and CEO Scott DeGhetto, HEI Executive Vice President and CFO Shelly Kimura, Hawaiian Electric President and CEO and other members of senior management. Our earnings release and our presentation for this call are available in the Investor Relations section of our website. As a reminder, forward looking statements will be made on today's call.

Mateo Garcia
Mateo Garcia
Director of Investor Relations at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations can be found in our presentation, our SEC filings and in the Investor Relations section of our website. Today's presentation also includes references to non GAAP financial measures. You should refer to the information contained in the slides accompanying today's presentation for definitional information and reconciliations of historical non GAAP measures to the closest GAAP financial measure. We will take questions from institutional investors at the end of this call. Individual investors and others can reach out to Investor Relations. Now Scott Few will begin with his remarks.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Aloha kakou. Welcome, everyone.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

For today's call, I'll start with an update on our continued efforts to regain HEI's financial strength and emerge a stronger, more resilient company. I'll also touch on the recently concluded Hawaii legislative session and the remaining steps required for execution of the Maui wildfire settlement agreement. I'll then turn it over to Scott DeGhetto, who will walk through our financial results, and then we'll open it up for questions. Last quarter, we discussed the important progress made in 2024 to ensure a strong financially healthy future for HEI and to best position our company to serve the communities in which we operate for the long term. This progress has continued in 2025 with the important strides made to resolve the Mali wildfire tort litigation while laying a foundation for financial strength and resilience moving forward.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

In February, the Hawaii State Supreme Court issued a decision resolving the outstanding issue with insurers who filed segregation claims related to the Maui wildfires. The court clarified that once the settlement becomes final, insurers seeking to recover amounts they've paid to settling plaintiffs cannot separately sue defendants. The decision aligned with our position and was a key step in finalizing the settlement. With this critical supportive Supreme Court decision, the remaining administrative steps required to finalize the settlement are expected to be completed early next year, after which we'll make our first four seventy nine million dollars payment. In March, Governor Green announced the commencement of the first disbursement under the $175,000,000 1 Ohana initiative to participating families who lost loved ones and individuals who suffered serious physical injuries in the Maui wildfires.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

As a reminder, the One Ohana initiative was established to provide relief as quickly as possible to those most seriously impacted. Our company contributed $75,000,000 to One Ohana, and this is part of our $1,990,000,000 total contribution to the settlement. The path toward resolving the Maui wildfire tort litigation is clearer now than at any time since August 2023. With the sale of American Savings Bank and ongoing divestiture of Pacific Current Assets, we're moving to a simpler business model, which will eventually be focused solely on regulated utility operations. With the actions we took last year to improve our balance sheet and liquidity, we're also moving forward with greater financial strength.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

We're well positioned to finance the remaining settlement payments amidst the robust CapEx cycle expected at Hawaiian Electric. The significant investments planned in the utilities generation system and electric grid will enhance safety, reliability and resilience for our customers. We're also moving forward with an operational risk profile that's greatly improved since the twenty twenty three Maui wildfires. The utility has continued to implement the enhanced wildfire safety measures outlined in the 2025 through 2027 wildfire safety strategy submitted to the Public Utilities Commission in January. Another priority for 2025 and 2026 is to rebase the utilities target revenues in the performance based regulation, or PBR, framework.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

In February, the PUC ordered that target revenues should be rebased ahead of the second multiyear rate period of the PBR framework using a rate case like proceeding. We expect to file an application to rebased target revenues towards the later part of this year. Our progress in making our company stronger and more resilient has not come at the expense of other key priorities. We remain committed to advancing our state's clean energy goals and our path to 100% RPS and net zero by 02/1945. In summary, we believe our company's investment thesis is stronger today than it has been at any point since the Mali wildfires.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

We've made significant progress toward resolving the wildfire tort litigation and simplifying our corporate structure, and the actions we've taken to improve our company's risk profile and financial flexibility have positioned us well for the future. Turning to the next slide. This legislative session, several measures passed and are awaiting signature by Governor Green. Last week, the Hawaii State Legislature passed House Bill 1,001 appropriating funds for the State of Hawaii's contribution to the Maui wildfire tort litigation settlement. This was a crucial step to ensure the settlement is implemented.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

The legislature also passed Senate Bill eight ninety seven, directing the Public Utilities Commission to establish an aggregate liability cap on economic damages from future wildfires. Numerous factors will be considered in determining the cap, including impacts on credit ratings, borrowing costs and customer rates. In order to assert the liability cap, the utility needs to have a PUC approved wildfire mitigation plan and a PUC determination that the plan is being implemented on an approved timeline. Senate Bill eight ninety seven also authorizes securitization to finance wildfire safety improvements. This will ensure that these critical safety improvements can be implemented at lower cost to customers.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

And Senate Bill eight ninety seven also directs the PUC to study the creation of a disaster recovery fund with recommendations to be provided to the legislature prior to the twenty twenty six legislative session. Although many details will need to be worked through, Senate Bill eight ninety seven is a milestone piece of legislation that can reduce wildfire liability risk exposure for the utility going forward. It also allows for lower cost financing so that the utility can implement wildfire mitigation plans in a more cost effective manner. Hawaii is now one of 15 states that have passed or are considering utility related wildfire legislation, including laws to limit utilities exposure to liability if they take action to reduce the risk of ignition. Legislation was also passed supporting the utilities' ability to procure reliable, affordable, clean energy.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Senate Bill fifteen oh one will help reduce financial risk concerns for independent power producers contracting with the utility. It authorizes the state to provide a financial backstop in certain situations to ensure utility payments to independent power producers. This ensures that developers have access to capital at reasonable rates and can provide the utility with clean, reliable power while preserving project economics and customer affordability. This legislation also supports our state's drive towards 100% RPS and carbon neutrality by 02/1945. This year's constructive legislative outcome was the result of months of debate, collaboration and hard work from policymakers and numerous Hawaii stakeholders.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

We look forward to continuing our work with the governor, our legislature, the PUC and other stakeholders after these bills are signed into law. Lastly, Slide five shows the expected timing for the remaining steps required to finalize the settlement agreement. The Maui District Court is working through the administrative steps required for the settlement to take effect. These include granting approvals of the agreements and making good faith determinations, among other steps. We expect these steps will be completed in early twenty twenty six, which will then trigger our first payment obligation.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

I'll now hand the call off to Scott DeGhetto, who will take you through the quarter's financial results.

Scott Deghetto
Scott Deghetto
Executive VP, CFO & Treasurer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Thank you, Scott. I'll start with our financial results for the quarter on Slide six. In the first quarter, we generated net income $26,700,000 or $0.15 per share. The quarter's results include a $13,200,000 pre tax loss on sale recorded at Pacific Current resulting from the sale of its largest asset, the Hamakua Power Plant. The quarter's results also include $4,500,000 of pre tax Maui wildfire related expenses, net of insurance recoveries and deferrals.

Scott Deghetto
Scott Deghetto
Executive VP, CFO & Treasurer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Approximately $2,500,000 of the $4,500,000 in net wildfire expenses was recorded at the utility. Excluding these items, consolidated core net income was $39,800,000 for the quarter or $0.23 per share. This compares to core income from continuing operations of $28,400,000 or zero two six dollars per share in the first quarter of twenty twenty four. As a reminder, income from continuing operations is the appropriate 2024 metric to compare to as it excludes the operations of American Savings Bank, which we sold at the end of last year. Utility core net income for the quarter was $49,700,000 compared to $44,200,000 in the first quarter of twenty twenty four.

Scott Deghetto
Scott Deghetto
Executive VP, CFO & Treasurer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

The increase in utility core net income was driven by better heat rate performance, higher annual revenue adjustment mechanism revenues and lower bad debt expense, partially offset by higher wildfire mitigation program expenses and higher insurance costs. Holding company core net loss was $9,900,000 compared to $15,800,000 in the first quarter of twenty twenty four. The lower core net loss was driven by higher interest income from holding company cash being held on the balance sheet primarily to make the first settlement payment. Turning to the next slide, I'll provide a few key updates on our capitalization and liquidity. As of the end of the first quarter, the holding company and the utility had approximately $492,000,000 and $130,000,000 of unrestricted cash on hand respectively.

Scott Deghetto
Scott Deghetto
Executive VP, CFO & Treasurer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

The March 31 holding company cash balance includes the approximately $384,000,000 from the ASB sale that was used to retire debt on April 9. In addition, the holding company has approximately $300,000,000 in combined liquidity available under its ATM program and revolver capacity. The utility also has approximately $300,000,000 of liquidity available under its accounts receivable credit facility and revolver capacity. The first settlement payment of $479,000,000 continues to be held in a subsidiary created for addressing first installment payment pursuant to the Maui wildfire settlement. This is included in restricted cash on the balance sheet until we make the first settlement payment expected in early twenty twenty six.

Scott Deghetto
Scott Deghetto
Executive VP, CFO & Treasurer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

We mentioned previously that the net proceeds from last year's sale of 90.1% of American Savings Bank would be used for debt reduction at the holding company. Following a successful tender offer in March, on April 9, HEI retired approximately $384,000,000 of debt. The lower holding company debt balance gives us more financial flexibility as we formulate plans for financing the balance of the settlement payments. Looking ahead, HEI remains committed to a simpler, more focused business model. Following the successful sale of Pacific Current's largest asset, we are continuing to explore our options with the remaining assets.

Scott Deghetto
Scott Deghetto
Executive VP, CFO & Treasurer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Lastly, the utility dividend to HEI has been reinstated after the temporary suspension that began with the second quarter twenty twenty four dividend. Hawaiian Electric's Board of Directors approved a $10,000,000 quarterly dividend for the first quarter of twenty twenty five. This decision was made after considering several factors, including the continued progress of the Maui windstorm and wildfire settlement as well as the utilities results of operations and liquidity position. With that, let's open up the call to questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. Our first question comes from the line of Nicholas Campanella with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Mike Brown
Mike Brown
Head of Design at Barclays

This is Michael Brown on for Nicholas Campanella. First question is, do you anticipate a positive feedback from the rating agencies if SB eight ninety seven is signed into law? How do you think that they will view that?

Scott Deghetto
Scott Deghetto
Executive VP, CFO & Treasurer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Yeah. The the the simple answer to that is yes. We don't wanna speculate on, you know, what the rating agencies are thinking or how they'll respond to that. But they've given us very strong indications that once that is signed, as well as a number of other key milestones including, the final court approval of the settlement agreement that those are all credit positives.

Mike Brown
Mike Brown
Head of Design at Barclays

My next question is, if SBA 97 is signed into law, is this like what kind of step forward is this for, the wildfire fund going forward?

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Mike, this is Scott. See, I'm not quite sure your question with respect to eight ninety seven is what?

Mike Brown
Mike Brown
Head of Design at Barclays

How will this legislation shift the discussion towards the future wildfire fund implementation?

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Well, as part of the senate bill eight nine seven, there is a component that requires the PUC to study the viability of a wildfire fund and come back to the legislature prior to the next session with recommendations on, you know, whether a fund should be created. If so, how large should it be? What should be the structure and and other considerations? So the PUC will will be doing this study towards the end of this year.

Mike Brown
Mike Brown
Head of Design at Barclays

Thank you.

Operator

Our next question will come from the line of Julien Dumoulin Smith with Jefferies.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith
Julien Dumoulin-Smith
II-Ranked & 'Hall of Fame' Research Analyst covering Power, Utilities & Clean Energy at Jefferies

Hey, good afternoon. Good morning, good afternoon as it may be. Thank you for the time. Let me just pick up on the s p eight ninety seven from a second ago. I mean, what is this liability cap, if you will?

Julien Dumoulin-Smith
Julien Dumoulin-Smith
II-Ranked & 'Hall of Fame' Research Analyst covering Power, Utilities & Clean Energy at Jefferies

I mean, obviously, they're they're directing the PC to establish one. How do you think about a range that's appropriate? Or how do you even think about the concept of this supposed liability cap? I mean and how are you engaging with with parties on even approaching what that might conceivably construed as being?

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Yeah. Hi, Julian. This is Scott. I think what's important is that s p eight nine seven, it it essentially says that there shall be a an aggregate liability cap. So that's that's the first important point.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

The meat of the bill, of course, is directing the PUC to start a rule making process to consider a number of different factors that we touched upon in my earlier remarks and are which are listed in the bill itself. And the PUC will will take into account, you know, should this should the liability cap be based on a cap within a set time period? Should it be on a per event basis? Should it be a flat dollar amount? Should be a percent of our market cap or rate base?

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

So a number of these different factors all listed in the legislation. So I think it's important that we don't get ahead of the PUC process, but just remember that the bill directs that a cap will be established, and it's put to the PUC to follow their rulemaking process to to establish exactly what the best form is to to serve the purposes of the cap.

Shelee Kimura
Shelee Kimura
President & Chief Executive Officer, Hawaiian Electric at Hawaiian Electric Industries

And if I can just add a little bit more color to that, Julian, this is Shelley, to help you put some parameters around it. During the legislative session, proposals were made to have it be the lesser of 500,000,000 or some other parameters. And later in legislation, it was discussed at a billion. The challenge in the legislative session was folks getting comfortable with that number. And the way the legislation is written now is that for the PUC to determine the amount is similar to the California law where it's looking at what can the utility pay without harming rate payers or our ability to deliver service.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith
Julien Dumoulin-Smith
II-Ranked & 'Hall of Fame' Research Analyst covering Power, Utilities & Clean Energy at Jefferies

Got it. No. Fair enough. And I get it. It's early on.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith
Julien Dumoulin-Smith
II-Ranked & 'Hall of Fame' Research Analyst covering Power, Utilities & Clean Energy at Jefferies

So I appreciate that it's dynamic. And then maybe if I can come back, like, look, I mean, just in turning assuming this legislation becomes law, can you elaborate on your your financing strategy for the remaining three settlement payments? Right? I mean, obviously, you elaborate you spoke to the first one here. But how are you thinking about the remaining payments here and maybe securitization elements potentially ahead?

Scott Deghetto
Scott Deghetto
Executive VP, CFO & Treasurer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

So, and I know you ask this every quarter and I I tend to answer it the same Julian, which is we're continuously looking at the capital markets to determine how to best finance it. We're gonna do that by looking at a variety of different factors. You know, as it turns out, the first payment will not be made, until, you know, sometime in 2020 early twenty twenty six. So we're still about a year out from thinking about raising the funds for the second payment. So I think it's premature to come to any definitive conclusions as to how we'll finance it other than what I've been saying in the past, which is it'll be a combination of both debt and equity.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith
Julien Dumoulin-Smith
II-Ranked & 'Hall of Fame' Research Analyst covering Power, Utilities & Clean Energy at Jefferies

Yeah. No. Fair enough. I I get it's preliminary. We are all jumping at the bed, and I hope you appreciate that, Scott. Look. Let let me let me ask it.

Scott Deghetto
Scott Deghetto
Executive VP, CFO & Treasurer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

As as as time goes on and we get closer, we'll we'll be more definitive in how we answer that question.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith
Julien Dumoulin-Smith
II-Ranked & 'Hall of Fame' Research Analyst covering Power, Utilities & Clean Energy at Jefferies

Got it. And you talk about, you know, getting to the final final line on some of this stuff. I mean, how do you think about, you know you got the Supreme Court decision on subrogation. You checked that box. Are there any remaining obstacles that that remain here to get that final approval done and fully close that out?

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Yeah. So at this stage, I mean, that was probably one of the most important decisions to allow the settlement process to continue forward. So going ahead, the Maui circuit court will go through a number of proceedings, including preliminary approval of the class settlement agreement, individual plaintiffs approval of their settlement as well. After you get to the class settlement preliminary approvals, then there's some administrative steps including notice to the class opportunities for individuals to to sign to sign on. And that period will probably span several months, all of which would lead to our our estimation that a final approval hearing would happen sometime in the first quarter of twenty twenty six.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

And then following that, we would make our first payment.

Scott Deghetto
Scott Deghetto
Executive VP, CFO & Treasurer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

One one other point, Julien, I wanted to make because I didn't answer the second part of your question on securitization. Just to be clear, the the the the securitization authorization is for utility CapEx. It is it is not for funding any of the settlement or the settlement payments.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith
Julien Dumoulin-Smith
II-Ranked & 'Hall of Fame' Research Analyst covering Power, Utilities & Clean Energy at Jefferies

Okay. Thank you for that clarity. Appreciate you following up. Alright, guys. Thank you all very much. Appreciate it. Best of luck.

Scott Deghetto
Scott Deghetto
Executive VP, CFO & Treasurer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

We'll see what happens.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Michael Lonigan with Evercore. Please go ahead.

Michael Lonegan
Director - Equity Research at Evercore ISI

Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. So to follow-up on the securitization, you know, obviously, it's for the wildfire mitigation and resiliency investment. Is that will you approach it that way as a securitization? Or is it something we could, you know, see as an investment to generate earnings on?

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Yeah. Mike, the way the that s p eight nine seven is drafted is that, it appears as though the first five hundred million dollars of utility CapEx towards wildfire mitigation would be using the securitization method.

Michael Lonegan
Director - Equity Research at Evercore ISI

Okay. Thank you. And then to follow-up on the financing, is there I know you talked about combo of debt and equity over time, the settlement periods over four years. Is there a scenario where you could be opportunistic with some block equity or your ATM in the event your say, your stock price is boosted with clarity on the tariff situation and the economy?

Scott Deghetto
Scott Deghetto
Executive VP, CFO & Treasurer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Good question. I mean, as it relates to the tariffs, you know, that's changing, you know, on a daily basis, if not more frequently than that. And so, you know, based upon that and where we're looking at the the future financings, I would tell you that I I I'm hoping the tariffs don't play into it. And again, we have, as you said, you know, two, three, and four years from now, we're looking at financing the balance of those payments. I mean, if it if it made sense to prefund based upon what was happening in the markets at a particular time, yeah, we would absolutely look at taking advantage.

Scott Deghetto
Scott Deghetto
Executive VP, CFO & Treasurer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

But right now, we're not you know, we don't have any current plans, in the near future to finance, you know, any of those payments. Again, the first payment, you know, will not be made until first quarter twenty twenty six. At least that's the timeline that we believe will play out.

Michael Lonegan
Director - Equity Research at Evercore ISI

Great. Then thank you. And then lastly from me, just wondering if you could talk about the planned rate case filing, the key components of it. Is it going to be a twelve month forward test year? And what are your expectations for potential revisions to the five year PDR framework?

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Yeah. I'll I'll I'll kick things off here and, maybe if Shelley or or others from the utility wanna add in. But, essentially, what what's happening, Mike, is when PBR was first adopted by the PUC, they established that the current multiyear rate period will end May thirty first of next year. This the next next period, the second multiyear rate period will commence beginning of 2027, January '1 '20 '20 '7. So what the PUC ordered back in February of this year was that between now and January one of twenty twenty seven, the utility will go through the process of rebasing the target revenues, ahead of the start of the second multiyear rate period in 2027.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

And then that translates to, as I said in my remarks, the utility will file information to the PUC towards the later part of this year to support the rebasing of target revenues. It will be a and and the PUC was very explicit in their order. It will be a rate case like proceeding. They wanted to reserve the ability to provide some flexibility in terms of the process for that proceeding to make it more efficient and to be very much focused on the, you know, the PBR context. So it's early on.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

We are going to be going through this preparation for the filing. And once the filing is made, you know, there's gonna be an an ongoing process focused on the target revenue rebasing, but also looking at what other modifications might be appropriate to the overall PBR framework. So there's gonna be a number of moving parts happening in parallel there.

Michael Lonegan
Director - Equity Research at Evercore ISI

Great.

Shelee Kimura
Shelee Kimura
President & Chief Executive Officer, Hawaiian Electric at Hawaiian Electric Industries

I would just add one thing that I think that I I Scott did a really good job describing it. I think the one question you asked was the test year. So we're looking at a 2026 test year. Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question will come from the line of Jonathan Reeder with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Jonathan Reeder
Jonathan Reeder
Equities Research Analyst at Wells Fargo Securities

Hey, good morning team. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to follow-up quickly on that last topic. You said a 2026 test year. Is it safe to say that the 9.5% allowed ROE and 57%, I believe it is equity ratio, that those items will be, you know, scrutinized and and and readdressed?

Shelee Kimura
Shelee Kimura
President & Chief Executive Officer, Hawaiian Electric at Hawaiian Electric Industries

So we're gonna take, another look at that given our current environment and our current context. And so that is something that we'll be, evaluating and proposing in our filing later this year.

Jonathan Reeder
Jonathan Reeder
Equities Research Analyst at Wells Fargo Securities

Okay. But it will be an item that, I guess, could potentially change, you know, positively or negatively.

Shelee Kimura
Shelee Kimura
President & Chief Executive Officer, Hawaiian Electric at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Yeah. Yes.

Jonathan Reeder
Jonathan Reeder
Equities Research Analyst at Wells Fargo Securities

Scott, I wanted to go back to Senate Bill eight ninety seven. Just found it interesting, you know, after months of debate around the issues, why do you think the legislature ultimately deferred these very important decisions, you know, around the liability cap and then potentially creation of the fund to the PUC? Just kinda, you know, punted on them.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Yeah. You know, the the legislature, I mean, they really spent quite a bit of time, digging into, you know, what things to consider, how would you establish a methodology, what should be, what what are some other examples, what what's happened with other states and so on. At the end of the day, it was felt that the PUC would be able to use a more robust, more more in-depth process to, you know, really dive into the details of all these different considerations, many of which are very technical in nature. And that's why they ended up deciding that, you know, rather than trying to just throw out a number and and put it into law, have the PUC work through a very thoughtful rulemaking process. So it wasn't meant to be I I don't think it would it's fair to consider that consider this as a let's just punt it to the PUC.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

It was a very thoughtful and very deliberative discussion that they they came to this.

Jonathan Reeder
Jonathan Reeder
Equities Research Analyst at Wells Fargo Securities

Okay. Curious. What is your understanding of what the governor's position is on the liability cap since, you know, ultimately, has to sign off on what the PUC rules are?

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Well, again, I can't speak for the governor, but the governor's office was, they always play a very active role, in any legislative session. They they did provide testimony on various stages of this bill as it worked through the legislative process. Ultimately, having the governor have that say once the PUC completes the rulemaking, it provides the governor his opportunity to to weigh in and have have any any other thoughts considered by the PUC if necessary. So I think overall, again, the outcome of the bill provides for appropriate process and input from from many stakeholders, including the governor.

Jonathan Reeder
Jonathan Reeder
Equities Research Analyst at Wells Fargo Securities

Got it. Okay. Well, we'll be watching that to see how it plays out. Appreciate the time and good luck on the process forward.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Thanks, Jonathan.

Operator

And that will conclude our question and answer session. I'll hand the call back over to Scott Sewell for closing remarks.

Scott Seu
Scott Seu
President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Electric Industries

Alright. Well, I just want to thank everybody again for joining us today. In closing, I want to reiterate that we are in a stronger position today than at any point since the twenty twenty three Mali wildfires. Our position is a direct result of the actions that we've taken to regain our financial strength and emerge a stronger, more resilient company. With resolution of the wildfire tort litigation expected over the next year, our simpler business model focused solely on regulated operations, our strong and improving safety profile and earnings improvement opportunities on the horizon, we're very optimistic about our future. So thank you again, everybody.

Operator

This will conclude today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

Executives
    • Mateo Garcia
      Mateo Garcia
      Director of Investor Relations
    • Scott Seu
      Scott Seu
      President & Chief Executive Officer
    • Scott Deghetto
      Scott Deghetto
      Executive VP, CFO & Treasurer
    • Shelee Kimura
      Shelee Kimura
      President & Chief Executive Officer, Hawaiian Electric
Analysts
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