The parent of Hawaii’s biggest electric utility rebounded financially with a $123 million profit in 2025 after a $1.4 billion loss in 2024 tied to Maui’s 2023 wildfire disaster.
Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. on Friday reported results that also showed a $40 million profit in the fourth quarter of last year compared with a $68 million loss in the same
quarter a year earlier.
The $123 million in net income HEI achieved in 2025 was a comeback from the outsized loss the year before, but lagged profits of $199 million in 2023 and $241 million in 2022.
HEI, a public holding company that owns Hawaiian Electric Co., booked the $1.4 billion loss in 2024 largely to account for its
obligation to pay $2 billion over four years to victims
of the wildfire as part of a $4 billion litigation
settlement involving other defendants.
The company expects
to make its initial $479 million payment in the second half of this year by tapping $558 million it raised in 2024 by selling new shares of HEI stock.
Scott Seu, HEI president and CEO, said in a statement that the company in 2025 made critical progress on initiatives that include working toward distribution of wildfire settlement funds and reducing wildfire risks.
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“Over the past year, we continued to take actions to ensure that we’re best positioned to serve the communities in which we operate for the long term,” he said.
The wildfire settlement was reached with the help of mediators in August 2024 and is expected to compensate about 24,000 victims, including people who were injured or who lost family members, homes, businesses, personal property, jobs, wages and more.
The fire on Aug. 8, 2023, killed 102 people and destroyed most of Lahaina,
including businesses, public buildings and roughly 5,500 homes.
Other contributors to the settlement are the state, Kamehameha Schools, Hawaiian Telcom, Spectrum/Charter Communications and affiliates of West Maui Land Co.
Distribution of settlement proceeds has been held up by legal challenges brought by nearly 200 insurance companies that have sought to obtain damages from entities paying the
settlement, or to alternatively share in the settlement, as reimbursement for claims they paid to fire victims with losses and related expenses.
Final approval of the
settlement in state Circuit Court is conditioned on there being no legal decisions relating to the deal that are not final or subject to appeal.
The Hawaii Supreme Court earlier this month dismissed an appeal by the insurers in one related case after ruling against the insurers in another related matter in 2025. One other case was appealed by the insurers on Jan. 20 to Hawaii’s Intermediate Court of Approvals and is
pending.
“This is the last step,” Seu told stock analysts on a conference call Friday. “We believe we’re in the home stretch of this
process.”
HEI has not yet raised funding for its second payment, but plans to do that by issuing debt after the settlement receives final confirmation. HEI anticipates making its third and fourth payments using a mix of debt and equity in the company. Previously, HEI contributed $75 million to a state fund for some wildfire victims foregoing litigation.
At the end of last year, HEI and Hawaiian Electric had $502 million in cash on hand, with another $1.1 billion in liquidity available through credit facilities and authorized stock sales.
HEI also sold 90.1% of its stake in American Savings Bank for $405 million in 2024, and used proceeds largely to pay off debt.
The company intends to liquidate its remaining 9.9% in the local bank sometime later this year depending on market and bank
conditions.
Seu noted that Hawaiian Electric customers generally had stable bills in 2025 as significant investments to reduce wildfire risks were made by the company, which has about 472,000 customers on Oahu, Hawaii island, Maui, Molokai and Lanai.
Investments since 2024 to reduce the risk of utility equipment causing another calamitous wildfire include installing more than
100 weather stations in wildfire-prone areas, replacing or upgrading more than 3,600 wood poles, replacing at least 36 miles of copper power lines with stronger aluminum lines, upgrading more than 10,000 fuses, and replacing over 2,900 lightning arresters with fire-safe lightning arresters. The utility also implemented a Public Safety Power Shutoff program in July 2024.
The state Public Utilities Commission in December approved a three-year
wildfire safety strategy
submitted by Hawaiian Electric, Seu noted on the conference call.
“The utility has achieved many of the operational objectives laid out in the strategy ahead of schedule, and will continue rapidly advancing the strategy as we progress through 2026,” he said.
Seu also said Hawaiian Electric continued to make progress generating more electricity from renewable sources to displace more costly and polluting fossil fuels.
The utility, he said, increased its share of power from renewable sources to 37% in 2025 from 36% in 2024. He said Hawaiian Electric is on track to meet a statutory requirement to reach 40% by the end of 2030. Longer-term requirements are to reach 70% by the end of 2040, and 100% by the end of 2045.
Shares of HEI stock closed at $15.49 on Friday before the earnings announcement. The stock over the prior 52 weeks has traded between $9.06 and $17.38. The day before the wildfire, HEI shares were at $37.36.