Hawaiian Electric Industries (HE) Q4 2023 earnings call transcript

Mateo Garcia Director of Investor Relations Thank you. Welcome, everyone, to HEI's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Call. Joining me today are Scott Seu, HEI President and CEO; Scott Deghetto, HEI Executive Vice President, CFO and Treasurer; Shelee Kimura, Hawaiian Electric President and CEO; Ann Teranishi, American Savings Bank 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. 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. Now Scott Seu will begin with his remarks.

Scott W. H. Seu President, CEO & Director Aloha kakou. Welcome, everyone. For today's call, I'll start with key updates regarding the Maui wildfires, followed by financial and operational updates, and then Scott Deghetto will walk you through our 2023 financial results in more detail before we open it up for questions. It's been just over 6 months since the tragedy of the August 8 wildfires. Our community continues to grieve, and we know that it will be a long road ahead. However, I'm encouraged and inspired by the way so many in our community have come together to work towards the near- and long-term solutions necessary to help our state heal and emerge stronger. It's clear that supporting Maui's recovery and addressing the increasing risk of wildfires as our climate changes will take a whole of society approach.

We're seeing this whole of society view reflected in the One Ohana initiative Governor Josh Green announced last fall and in our state's legislative session that is now underway. One Ohana lays out a holistic framework to support Maui's recovery, protect our communities against future extreme weather events, and ensure that as a state, we can attract the capital needed to invest in wildfire mitigation and keep our communities safe. Governor Green has also stated his intention for our state to avoid protracted legal conflicts, which could not only jeopardize Hawaii's energy future, but could also severely delay reconstruction and economic recovery. The intentions of One Ohana align with our company's values and priorities. Under One Ohana, many parties are working together to find solutions to help the families most impacted by the fires, reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires and provide economic stabilization for the state.

Meaningful progress has been made towards these goals in just the 3 months since One Ohana was announced. The Maui Recovery Fund, one aspect of the Governor's One Ohana initiative, provides an alternative to litigation for families who have lost a loved one and those who are severely injured in the Maui fires. It now has $175 million of commitments and is targeting a March 1 launch. Hawaiian Electric will contribute up to $75 million, and the State of Hawaii, Maui County, Kamehameha Schools, Spectrum and Hawaiian Telcom have committed to contribute the remainder. The speed at which this first fund has come together is encouraging. And as the governor has said, it will help with healing and help everyone move forward.

The next phase of this process will seek to support property owners and businesses who have been severely impacted by the fire. As part of the One Ohana framework, Governor Green also laid out intentions to explore legislative solutions to address not only Maui's recovery, but also measures for a state to address the impacts of increasingly severe weather events going forward. The legislative session began last month, and in the range of bills that have been introduced, we're seeing a whole of society approach to ensuring our state utilities and communities have the tools needed to address the challenges we face. We're focused on bills that would establish a fund for property owners to recover damages from future catastrophic wildfires, wildfire risk mitigation HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES, INC. FQ4 2023 EARNINGS CALL FEB 13, 2024 spglobal.

com/marketintelligence 5 planning requirements overseen by the Public Utilities Commission, along with cost recovery for implementing approved plans, and securitization as a financing option. The Office of the Governor has expressed the importance of legislation that can help stabilize the electric utility and Hawaii's energy future. His administration has proposed a bill that requires the utility to develop a wildfire mitigation plan overseen by the Public Utilities Commission and also includes securitization as a tool to finance wildfire safety and recovery. Dozens of bills have been introduced to address other aspects of wildfire risk more broadly. The legislature is considering bills that would establish a state fire marshal, a State Wildfire Field Reduction Task Force, a Wildfire Safety Advisory Board and a state firefighting helicopter program, to name a few examples.

It's still early in the legislative process, and bills can undergo significant changes over the legislative session, which will run through early May. However, I'm pleased to see commitment among so many in Hawaii to urgently address the risks wildfires and other extreme weather events posed to our state. We also continue to work through the litigation process. As of February 12, Hawaiian Electric Company has been named as a defendant in 101 lawsuits by plaintiffs claiming losses related to the August 8 windstorm and wildfires, and HEI has been named in 101 as well. Most of these lawsuits have been removed from the state court to federal court, but jurisdiction is still in the process of being settled. Certain milestone dates that were set earlier by the State Court, such as when we'll need to file counter claims, are no longer in effect and will be revisited once jurisdiction is settled.

Subrogation claims from about 150 different insurers with exposure on Maui have also been filed, and we'll respond to those complaints once they are served on us. Turning to the next slide. Our utility received several constructive regulatory decisions in recent months that support our efforts to strengthen the resiliency of our system while we continue to advance Hawaii's clean energy goals. Earlier this month, Hawaiian Electric received PUC approval for their 5-year $190 million grid resilience plan. The plan includes a slate of foundational resilience investments as the first phase of a long-term climate adaptation effort that will help harden the utilities grids against severe weather-related events fueled by climate change. This approval enables the utility to move forward with $95 million in Department of Energy Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding by matching it with $95 million in rate recovery.

The utility also received several important regulatory decisions prior to 2023 year-end, including approvals to defer costs associated with the Maui wildfires and to recover $8.8 million in previously deferred costs from the COVID-19 pandemic. Our approximately $82 million Waena battery energy storage project on Maui was also approved. This is a critical project for ensuring adequacy of supply on the island. The utility has continued to progress its Stage 3 RFP, its largest renewables procurement ever. Contract negotiations are in process with the developers of 16 renewable energy projects across our islands. The projects will further reduce Hawaii's dependence on imported oil for power generation. The negotiations are expected to produce long-term contracts for approximately 517 megawatts of variable generation, 694 megawatts of firm renewable generation and 2.1 gigawatt hours of storage.

As we've discussed previously, the utility's own 253-megawatt Waiau repowering project on Oahu was selected in the RFP. The project will be built at the site of Hawaiian Electric's existing 85-year-old facility, and could potentially use renewable gas or hydrogen when it becomes commercially available. The utility is working closely with the Department of Energy on federal loan funding options to help fund the project. We are also pursuing additional federal funding sources, including nearly $450 million of grants for grid resilience, modernization and innovation for investments to increase resilience to natural hazards, including wildfires. In December, the utility connected the world's most advanced battery energy storage system to Oahu's grid. The Kapolei energy storage battery plant provides 185 megawatts of total power capacity and 565-megawatt hours of energy.

And this is the first time a stand-alone battery has provided grid-forming services at this scale. We're pleased with the utility's continued progress towards a clean energy powered grid and encouraged by the constructive regulatory and federal government engagement on Hawaii's clean energy future. I'm also pleased to announce that we recently reached agreement with our union, IBEW 1260, on a new 3-year contract effective through October 2027. The contract provides stability and visibility as we continue performing critical work to modernize our generation system and make our electric grids more resilient. Turning now to our financial results. Our core operations have continued to perform in line with expectations, while we work alongside others in the Maui reconstruction efforts. On a consolidated basis, 2023 net income was $199.2 million, and earnings per share was $1.81.

This included about $14 million of Maui wildfire-related expenses net of insurance recoveries and deferrals and a loss on the sale of securities of $11 million resulting from a strategic balance sheet repositioning at the bank. Excluding these items, HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES, INC. FQ4 2023 EARNINGS CALL FEB 13, 2024 spglobal. com/marketintelligence 6 core net income was $224 million, and EPS was $2.04, down about 5% compared to last year's core net income, which excludes the gain on sale of an equity method investment recorded in 2022 at Pacific Current. Utility net income and EPS were $194 million and $1.76 or $195.1 million and $1.77 on a core basis, up about 3% compared to 2022. Bank net income and EPS were $53.4 million and $0.48.

Excluding wildfire-related expenses and the securities loss, core net income was $72.6 million and EPS was $0.66, down from $80 million and $0.73 last year. At the holding company level, the net loss of $48.1 million in 2023 was up from $27.8 million in the prior year and included $4.7 million of wildfire-related expenses. Excluding these expenses, core net loss was $43.4 million, and core EPS loss was $0.39.

Turning to the bank. ASB's business proved resilient through the economic impacts of the Maui wildfires and the challenging interest rate environment experienced in 2023. ASB's loyal and long tenured deposit base remained stable during the year. And as of December 31, 86% of deposits were FDIC insured were fully collateralized. Customer deposits are safe, and there is no risk to customer deposits as a result of legal claims related to the wildfires. Asset quality remains strong, and the Hawaii market continues to be characterized by strong credit quality and low delinquency rates in comparison to the mainland. The bank's capital remains strong with ample liquidity and lending capacity. The sale of investment securities executed in the fourth quarter positions ASB for improved profitability and net interest margin while strengthening the balance sheet.

In the fourth quarter, the bank sold low-yielding securities and reduced high-cost deposits with proceeds. Scott Deghetto will discuss the transaction in greater detail. ASB has continued to support the Maui community at a time when they most need us, and the bank has provided numerous options for our Maui customers facing financial hardship as a result of the fires, including waived ATM fees, forbearance and deferment for commercial and consumer loans and emergency personal lines of credit. In addition, the bank has provided $135,000 of charitable contributions to support the Maui community and has partnered with the Hawaii Restaurant Association, the Hawaii Bankers Association and others to provide donations and other resources for Maui residents during this difficult time.

We are optimistic regarding Hawaii's economic outlook, and the economy has proved resilient following the wildfires in August. Hawaii's statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 2.9% in December and continues to outperform the U. S. average of 3.7%. The University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, or UHERO, forecasts that the state unemployment rate will remain low at 2.5% in 2024. UHERO's latest outlook is an improvement compared to their outlook immediately following the wildfires. UHERO had initially predicted a more prolonged recovery, estimating that Maui's visitor arrivals would be 50% of the previous years, and Maui unemployment would be over 10%. Maui's unemployment rate was around 5% as of year-end. And in the month of December, visitor arrivals to Maui were 75% of the previous years.

Total statewide arrivals for the year were 90% of pre-pandemic levels. Despite the economic impacts from the Maui wildfires, statewide visitor spending for the full year was up over 2022. Visitor spending increased 5.5% to $20.8 billion in 2023. This is well above pre-pandemic levels by almost 20% despite Japanese visitor arrivals being at about half of pre-pandemic levels. Real estate values in Hawaii remain consistently strong. In December, the Oahu median single-family home price was over $1 million. And the median condo sales price was just under $510,000. Home sales volumes were down year-over-year, but we're encouraged to see the recent decline in mortgage rates. Hawaii's market continues to be characterized by limited inventory and stable prices, supported by limited land available for property development.

I'll now hand it off to Scott Deghetto to walk through our financial results in more detail.

Scott Deghetto Executive VP, CFO & Treasurer Thank you, Scott. I'll start with our results for the year on Slide 8. We earned consolidated net income of $199.2 million and EPS of $1.81 for the full year. That included $14.1 million or about $0.13 per share of wildfire-related expenses net of insurance recoveries and deferrals and $11 million or $0.10 per share from a loss on a sale of securities at the bank resulting from the bank's balance sheet repositioning. Excluding those nonrecurring expenses, core net income and EPS were $224.3 million and $2.04 compared to $235 million and $2.14 in 2022. Utility net income included $1.1 million of windstorm and wildfire-related impacts, bank net income included $8.3 million and the holding company and Other segment included $4.7 million of these costs.

In December, the PUC granted the utility's request for deferral treatment of windstorm and wildfire-related incremental nonlabor expenses. And as a result, the utility deferred $10.9 million of after-tax O&M expenses in 2023. In total, the utility's incremental after-tax Maui windstorm and wildfire-related expenses of $1.1 HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES, INC. FQ4 2023 EARNINGS CALL FEB 13, 2024 spglobal. com/marketintelligence 7 million were comprised of $29.6 million of expenses, net of $17.5 million of insurance-related recoveries and the $10.9 million in deferred costs. As mentioned, the bank executed a balance sheet repositioning in the fourth quarter that resulted in an $11 million after-tax loss on the sale of investment securities. This resulted from a strategic sale of $185 million of low-yielding assets, with proceeds used to reduce ASB's highest cost source of funding, which was certificates of deposit.

The transaction is expected to improve this year's net interest income and net interest margin. In addition, lower asset levels will allow ASB's leverage ratio to improve faster. On a consolidated basis, core ROE remains healthy at 9.9%, excluding wildfire impacts and the loss on sale of securities. This is down from 10.2% core ROE last year due primarily to lower bank earnings and a higher holding company loss. Utility core ROE was flat at 8.2%, excluding wildfire impacts, and Bank core ROE was up 80 basis points to 14.9%, excluding wildfire impacts. The higher Bank ROE reflects the impacts of higher interest rates to Bank AOCI, which reduces shareholders' equity. The approximately $0.04 increase in the Utility's EPS contribution was the result of a $0.28 increase in revenues, primarily from the annual revenue adjustment and major project interim recovery mechanisms, a $0.05 increase in AFUDC and a $0.04 increase from the fuel cost risk-sharing mechanism.

These increases were partially offset by a $0.24 increase in O&M expense, a $0.06 increase in depreciation, $0.03 of higher interest expense and about $0.01 per share of incremental wildfire costs, net of insurance recoveries and deferred costs. The approximately $0.25 decrease in ASB's EPS contribution was driven by the $0.10 loss from the bank's balance sheet repositioning, $0.09 of higher noninterest expenses, $0.08 of wildfire-related expenses, including $0.04 of additional provision recorded in Q3, and $0.02 of higher provision, partially offset by a $0.03 increase in noninterest income. Holding company and other segment expenses were higher by about $0.19 per share, consisting of $0.04 in wildfire expenses, $0.05 from lower Pacific Current asset performance, $0.04 of interest expense and a $0.06 negative variance due to the 2022 gain on sale of an equity investment at Pacific Current.

Turning to our liquidity on Slide 10. We continue to believe that we have sufficient liquidity runway as we work through the timing and potential impacts of litigation related to the Maui wildfires. As of the end of fourth quarter, the holding company and the utility had $137 million and $106 million of cash on hand, respectively. In addition, we continue to pursue additional financing through an accounts receivable facility at the utility, which we expect will provide $200 million to $250 million of additional liquidity. Last week, Hawaiian Electric's Board of Directors declared a $13 million quarterly cash dividend to HEI. With the suspension of HEI's dividend to our common shareholders, cash needs at the HEI parent company are limited relative to cash needs prior to the dividend suspension.

Rightsizing the utility's dividend to HEI allows more cash to be kept at the utility, supporting its ability to perform needed restoration work in West Maui and make critical capital investments for wildfire mitigation and in other electrical infrastructure while capital markets access remains constrained.

In closing, I want to acknowledge what a challenging year 2023 was for our community, our employees and our shareholders. We will continue taking the right steps in working collaboratively with our community, regulators and lawmakers to remain a financially healthy enterprise best positioned to support the needs of our customers in the state. And with that, let's open up the call to questions. HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES, INC. FQ4 2023 EARNINGS CALL FEB 13, 2024 spglobal.

Scott Deghetto Executive VP, CFO & Treasurer Yes. Mike, it's Scott Deghetto. Yes. So I think when you look at the $275 million and you compare it to the $106 million, what you need to keep in mind is that the $275 million had a prefunding of the $100 million maturity. So the way I look at it is we really ended the quarter at $175 million. And so $175 million versus the $106 million. And again, as you know, there's varying capital requirements and cash requirements as you move through a business and throughout the year. And so I would just keep that in mind as you look at the end of the year number. The other thing I can tell you is, as we said on the call, we're working through the accounts receivable facility.

We've retained a large global bank to work with us on that facility, and we're basically finalizing that as we speak. And we'll be filing with the PUC in the not-too-distant future to get formal approval for that facility.

Scott W. H. Seu President, CEO & Director Mike, this is Scott Seu. At this stage, we don't have any projections for the potential uptake. I mean, the sizing of the fund and the consideration of payments of $1.5 million per claim. We're hopeful. I think the Governor's office is trying to get the word out about why this provides an attractive option for claimants to litigation. At this stage, we won't be able to tell you until the fund is actually launched on March 1.

Scott W. H. Seu President, CEO & Director Yes. Well, so the governor-sponsored bills, Jonathan, they focus on wildfire mitigation plans and allowing the utility to use securitization to pay for improvements as a result of those plans. I would say that those bills as currently drafted are forward-looking. I think the governor in one of the testimonies on one of the other bills made the point that as we consider these bills that are more forward-looking with respect to wildfire mitigation strategies, securitization, even a wildfire relief fund, it's still noted that we all still have to work through the issues of resolving the claims from last August. We talked a lot about fund #1 already. Suffice to say that there is active discussions happening right now with respect to claims dealing with property damage, business losses and the like.

So the long and short of it is the bills are predominantly forward-looking, HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES, INC. FQ4 2023 EARNINGS CALL FEB 13, 2024 spglobal. com/marketintelligence 9 albeit there is still capacity to think about funds, securitization and the like, which could possibly apply towards past claims. But most of the bills' focus is on a forward-looking basis.

Scott W. H. Seu President, CEO & Director Well, I would say this. I would think about it this way, Jonathan. The One Ohana, specifically on fund 2, there are any number of options available when you consider what the sources of funding might be, which could include, for example, anything ranging from securitization if it's deemed appropriate. It could include -- thinking from the HEI perspective, shareholder contributions. It could include use of insurance funds. Governor has also mentioned potential philanthropy. So I'd say that for fund 2, it is still a -- we're working through a number of different options. And there could very well be some overlap or interplay with some of the bills that are being considered.

It's still very early in the process for the legislative bills.

Scott W. H. Seu President, CEO & Director Yes. It will end in May. But I would say that the next significant milestones in the legislature are first crossover on March 7. And then later on, second crossover is April 11. Crossover is very important because at that point, that's when you will see what one House or the House or the Senate, where they ultimately land on the initially proposed bills.

Scott W. H. Seu President, CEO & Director Yes. We don't have any further updates, Jonathan, from what we talked about last quarter at that point. There was still no hard and fast schedule for the ATF Maui Fire Department investigation. And the State Attorney General's investigation, I think as we talked about last time, they had been initially planning to share some initial results back in December, but there were some delays as they needed to get more information from Maui County. So we still don't know of any further updates to their timing either.

Scott W. H. Seu President, CEO & Director Yes. We don't have any additional information beyond that, Jonathan.

Scott W. H. Seu President, CEO & Director Paul, I think you're asking about the proposed wildfire relief fund.

Scott W. H. Seu President, CEO & Director Yes, I think so. That would still -- that still needs to be determined, Paul. One component of that is actually sizing what the overall wildfire risk would be to the states. And I know that there has been discussion and part of some of the proposals are to do and from an actuarial perspective, doing a risk assessment, which will help size the overall risk and what the fund and potential investments could be. At the utility, of course, it will continue to do its own work looking at its wildfire mitigation plans, and that analysis is still in process and will play out.

Ann C. Teranishi CEO, President & Director of American Savings Bank Yes. Paul, this is Ann Teranishi. The funds -- the proceeds from the sale were used to pay our highest cost funding, which were public CDS.

Ann C. Teranishi CEO, President & Director of American Savings Bank Yes. So the public funds were yielding 5.6%, and they were 60 to 90 day certificates of deposits.

com/marketintelligence 11 Shelee M. T. Kimura President & CEO of Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc. Paul, this is Shelee Kimura. Nice to hear from you. So we're talking about an extension, basically, of the current contract. So those would be 3% increases every year. We had a separate component for our linemen, given the market rates for linemen in our sector. And the cost increase for that should not be different. It should actually be a little bit less than what we experienced in 2023 because we had a pilot program ongoing. And so the total impact of that should be about in the same range, if not a little bit less.

Unknown Executive Jonathan, this is Paul. So we are not providing guidance on CapEx. But what I would say is, as we look at our liquidity, we're managing to what we can afford in terms of our financial resources. I would say, generally, we would probably be on the lower end of what we have seen historically. As we mentioned, we are reprioritizing our spend to focus on critical things like wildfire mitigation, resilience. There will be some moderation in other areas as long as it doesn't impact public safety. But again, it's a matter of managing within our financial resources. And as Scott mentioned, we do have our facility that we're working on, we've made good progress on that.

So that should provide additional capital as we operate our business going forward.

Scott W. H. Seu President, CEO & Director Thank you for joining us today. And to our shareholders, thank you for your continued support and investment through these challenging times. I think that all of us here at the companies, our hearts continue to be with the people of Maui, including our many customers and of course, our own employees. So we're going to support and work alongside them every step of the way. As I said earlier, I'm encouraged by the support and collaboration that has really characterized the reconstruction efforts. And we look forward to continuing our work with the community, governor, lawmakers and others. We will chart our path forward together. So thank you very much.