Central Pacific Bancorp in Honolulu, reportedly in talks this year to buy Hawaiian Electric’s American Savings Bank, said deal discussions are now on ice.

“While the parties are no longer currently engaged in discussions, we remain interested in the opportunity under the right terms and conditions,” Central Pacific Chairman and CEO Arnold Martines said Wednesday during the $7.4 billion-asset bank’s third quarter earnings call.

He said Central Pacific recorded $3.1 million in pretax expenses “related to our evaluation and assessment of a strategic opportunity.”

He did not name American Savings. When asked by an analyst for more detail, Martines said, “At this point, we cannot comment on this further. We just can’t comment further about it.”

Citing unnamed sources, Bloomberg in September reported that Central Pacific was in discussions with multiple alternative asset managers to help buy the $9.3 billion-asset American Savings from Hawaiian Electric, the utility under scrutiny for its role in the August 2023 Lahaina wildfires that devastated a town on the island of Maui and killed more than 100 people.

Central Pacific reported third-quarter net income of $13.3 million, or 49 cents per share. Those results compared with net income of $13.1 million, or 49 cents, a year earlier.

Excluding the expense hit related to the deal talks, Central Pacific said its adjusted net income was $15.7 million, or 58 cents per share.

Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that Hawaiian Electric was looking to sell American Savings to create a cash buffer against dozens of lawsuits across state and federal courts. Many of the complaints accused the utility of sparking the blazes that ultimately caused more than $5 billion of property damage.

After that report, Evercore ISI analyst Michael Lonegan noted that the bank was in a strong financial position and had suffered minimal direct impact from the fires. “We would value the bank in the range of $600-$800 million in these circumstances,” Lonegan said.

American Savings, also based in Honolulu, on Wednesday reported third-quarter net income of $18.8 million, up from $11.4 million a year earlier. As a unit of Hawaiian Electric, it does not hold an earnings call.

“We remain well-positioned to support our customers and community for the long term, with a strong capital and liquidity position, strong credit quality, and ample lending capacity,” Ann Teranishi, president and CEO of American Savings, said in the bank’s earnings release.

Hawaiian Electric is scheduled to report earnings and hold a call with analysts on Nov. 8.

Earlier this month, authorities culminated an investigation with a report blaming the Lahaina fire on Hawaiian Electric. The report from the Maui Fire Department and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said the disaster was started from a blaze caused by broken power lines.

“We deeply regret that our operations contributed to the fire. … We have looked closely at our protocols and actions that day and have made many changes in our operations and resilience strategies to ensure we fulfill our commitment to keep the public safe, especially in extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent and severe,” Hawaiian Electric said in a statement.

American Savings is not the only Hawaiian bank on the potential sale block. The $17.4 billion-asset Hope Bancorp in Los Angeles agreed in April to an all-stock deal valued at $78.6 million to buy Territorial Bancorp in Honolulu. Hope said its offer priced Territorial at $8.82 per share and that it expected to close the transaction by Dec. 31. 

The seller’s shareholders are slated to vote on the pending sale to Hope on Nov. 6. Approval is hardly a sure thing, however, given there is a competing offer on the table. An investor group led by Blue Hill Advisors and former Bank of Hawaii CEO Allan Landon made a competing offer in August. Its initial cash bid valued Territorial at $12 per share. It has since upped that to $12.50 per share. 

More than 100 banks announced plans to sell in 2024. That put the industry ahead of last year’s total of 98 deals, according to updated data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

One of the biggest transactions of the year was announced this month. Atlantic Union Bankshares in Richmond, Virginia, said it would acquire Sandy Spring Bancorp in Olney, Maryland, for $1.6 billion of stock. It marked the third-largest bank acquisition announced this year by deal value.

Winter Haven, Florida-based SouthState Corp.’s May announcement that it would pay $2 billion in stock to acquire Independent Bank Group in McKinney, Texas, was the largest bank deal to date in 2024. Kansas City-based UMB Financial’s April plan to purchase Heartland Financial USA in Denver in an all-stock transaction valued at just under $2 billion was second.

There was shock in Hawaii this week as now fell on the state’s tallest peak, turning the mountain top into a winter wonderland.

The summit area of Mauna Kea on the Big Island got about two inches (five centimeters) of the white powder.

Hawaii is better known to many for its warm weather, beaches and rainforests. But it’s not unusual for snow to fall at the higher elevations on Mauna Kea during the wetter, winter months.

The summit is so high — it sits 13,803 feet (4,207 meters) above sea level — that temperatures there can drop below freezing year-round, creating the potential for snow during any month.

This week, an upper level disturbance brought colder temperatures as moisture came in from the east and moved over the islands on Sunday through to Monday, said Maureen Ballard, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Honolulu.

“Combination of cold temperatures and moisture equals snow when it’s below freezing,” Ballard said.

Webcams mounted on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope showed the ground covered in white shortly after sunrise on Monday. Two days later, the cameras showed the snow was gone.

Nobody lives on Mauna Kea’s summit, which is sacred to many of the Native Hawaiians. Centuries-old stories say Mauna Kea is the first-born son of the sky father and earth mother.

The limited light pollution and dry atmosphere at the mountain top also make it one of the world’s best places to observe the night sky and stars. Astronomers have built about a dozen telescopes at the summit, leading to Nobel Prize-winning discoveries and some of the first images of planets outside our solar system.

Meanwhile, this week, Mount Fuji in Japan is yet to see any snow on its slopes this year, with forecasters saying its a record.

The active volcano just west of Tokyo is the country’s highest peak at 3,776m and usually sees its first snow of the year in early October.

Since records began 130 years ago, this is the latest date in the year the mountain has gone without snow. The volcano last erupted about 300 years ago.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Gov. Josh Green is making a strident defense of his nominee to the state Commission on Water Resource Management, and is calling for compromise on water and development issues.

He is speaking out after a key state senator said the nominee was not qualified and critics suspect he would side with developers.

The governor has been under fire from environmentalists for his handling of water issues since soon after the Maui wildfires, when his administration reassigned the commission’s top administrator after a false claim he delayed release of water needed to fight fires.

His appointment of retired state historic preservation official V.R. Hinano Rodrigues is the latest move to be challenged, including by a key state senator.

Related post: Governor under fire again over water commission appointment

In an exclusive interview with Hawaii News Now, he called on his critics to compromise.

“These kind of stories that get rolled out and start from a place of confrontation, what do they get us? Nothing. They get us no housing, no progress, no water changes, no nothing,” he said.

After a nearly 11-month process, which water rights advocates said was intentional stalling, the governor nominated Rodrigues to a position reserved by law for a person with “substantial experience or expertise in traditional Hawaiian water resource management techniques and in traditional Hawaiian riparian usage.”

That’s to ensure that traditional kalo farmers have access to adequate stream water, which has created conflicts with large landowners and developers, especially on perpetually water short Maui.

Rodrigues was a cultural expert and manager with the state historic preservation agency.

“Let them see this person’s resume. It’s fantastic,” Green said. “This is someone who’s committed years and years of service in the field, and, by the way, grows his own taro, for gosh sakes.”

But Sen. Lorraine Inouye, who chairs the Water and Land Committee, said that doesn’t meet the qualifications in the law.

“One needs to have some water resource management background. And certainly, from my standpoint, it doesn’t seem like this gentleman is qualified,” she said.

Inouye, whose committee will review Rodrigues’ confirmation, said there were more qualified candidates the governor passed over and would have been acceptable to the water rights and environmental communities.

“I can’t understand why the governor is already upsetting the community and not fulfilling the requirements of that particular seat,” she said.

The governor responded to Inouye’s comments:

“All due respect, the senators should talk to the individual, find out where they’re coming from long before lobbing a little hand grenade behind their back,” he said.

In his interview, the governor described his decision-making process, involving two rounds of interviews and two sets of nominees from the screening committees:

“First person felt not to be Hawaiian enough, though it was Hawaiian and a leader, but not the guy people wanted. So, I didn’t do it. Second person got scared out of their, you know, their dress clothes. They didn’t want to deal with a conflict. And the third and fourth person, great people, but they brought an ideological perspective that was going to cause chaos as I try to work through some of these problems,” Green said, using the fingers of one hand to count off the nominees.

Green said advocates of stream restoration are blocking needed housing, although they dispute that, and says people are too quick to attack nominees who are willing to compromise.

“In our beautiful state, if people don’t line up perfectly, then we demonize them,” he said.

“This is no way to move forward as a state, and so I would ask those who bring an ideological position to instead, trust that people are going to actually try to work in good faith,” Green said.

Rodrigues could take his seat on the water commission as early as Thursday, when the commission meets in Honolulu.

The commission is also scheduled to confirm the new deputy for the commission, Ciara Kahahane, whom the governor appointed in August.

Watch the governor’s full interview:

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