Hawaii
Energy Policy Forum > 2002
Articles
Kauai Co-op Group to Buy Kauai Electric
Ben DiPietro
Wednesday, March 6, 2002
Pacific Business News
Kauai Electric is being sold to the
Kauai Island Utility Cooperative for $215 million, the
parties announced Wednesday.
The decision to sell is part of Citizen Communications
Co.'s plans to divest itself of its energy assets and focus
on
its telecommunications businesses. Kauai Electric provides
power to 31,000 customers. The deal is subject to regulatory
approvals and is expected to close
within 12 months, the company said. Cooperative Chairman
Greg Gardiner said the group will file an application with
the state Public Utilities Commission in the next few weeks.
"
The deal has huge benefits for Kauai," Gardiner said. "It's
the only hope we have for public ownership of the utility."
The
two sides had been talking about a sale for several years,
but the co-op balked at the company's original $270 million
asking price.Kauai Mayor Maryanne Kusaka released a report
last month recommending a local entity purchase the electric
company if the price were around $200 million.
Wallace Rezentes
Sr., the mayor's administrative assistant, said the county
was withholding comment on the purchase price
and until it could review the deal's details. "Price
could be [a sticking point]," he said. "There are
details in that agreement that may affect the price that
we are not aware of. And there are things other than price
that are important, like community-governance issues and
approval of the sale by the people.
No vote of Kauai residents
is required for the sale to be completed, Gardiner said.
Source: http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2002/03/04/daily25.html
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