Current owner to take proposal to state regulators this month A new deal has been struck between Kaua’i Electric parent company Citizens Communications and the Kaua’i Island Utility Co-op for the sale of Kaua’i Electric. The $215 million proposal requires
Current owner to take proposal to state regulators this month
A new deal has been struck between Kaua’i Electric parent company Citizens Communications and the Kaua’i Island Utility Co-op for the sale of Kaua’i Electric.
The $215 million proposal requires state Public Utilities Commission approval before it can be finalized.
During a conference call with analysts and others to discuss Citizens’ second-quarter earnings, Rudy J. Graf, Citizens’ chief executive officer, said this when discussing the company’s various divestitures: “We are planning to refile the Kaua’i Electric transfer application this month. That will bring in another $215 million.”
The re-filing is the new application with the Utilities Commission for approval of the sale of Kaua’i Electric to the co-op.
The announcement was a total surprise to Gregg Gardiner, chairman of the co-op’s board of directors, who said Thursday that no definitive agreement has been signed between the buyer and seller.
“We continue to work on behalf of the citizens on Kaua’i to make a deal, but we’re not there yet,” Gardiner said.
A proposed deal last year for the co-op to buy Kaua’i Electric for $270 million was rejected by the Utilities Commission amid questions about the financial viability of the offer and objections from federal, state and Kaua’i County agencies.
Since then, the county has expressed interest in acquirng Kaua’i Electric. A consultant hired by the county to study a county ownership scenario recently reported consumer rates for electricity on Kaua’i would drop if the county owned the utility.
Kaua’i Electric customers pay some of the highest electricity rates in the country.
Citizens Communications has announced that it wants to sell all of its utility businesses in favor of acquiring telecommunications lines on the mainland.
Another of its Hawai’i companies with operations on Kaua’i is The Gas Company, which is also for sale and offers propane and other gases and accessories at its Rice Street-Kapule Highway location in Lihu’e.
Graf indicated the sale of The Gas Company could happen soon, as well.
He said Citizens is “in discussions with interested buyers for the remainder of the public-service companies” and has a “positive” outlook about “reaching agreements on most of them by year’s end.”
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
