EX-99 2 exhibit9902-24x17.htm EXHIBIT 99
Exhibit 99

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This report and other presentations made by Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (HEI) and Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc. (Hawaiian Electric) and their subsidiaries contain “forward-looking statements,” which include statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions and usually include words such as “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “predicts,” “estimates” or similar expressions. In addition, any statements concerning future financial performance, ongoing business strategies or prospects or possible future actions are also forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and projections about future events and are subject to risks, uncertainties and the accuracy of assumptions concerning HEI and its subsidiaries (collectively, the Company), the performance of the industries in which they do business and economic and market factors, among other things. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance.
Risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in forward- looking statements and from historical results include, but are not limited to, the following:

• | international, national and local economic conditions, including the state of the Hawaii tourism, defense and construction industries, the strength or weakness of the Hawaii and continental U.S. real estate markets (including the fair value and/or the actual performance of collateral underlying loans held by ASB, which could result in higher loan loss provisions and write-offs), decisions concerning the extent of the presence of the federal government and military in Hawaii, the implications and potential impacts of U.S. and foreign capital and credit market conditions and federal, state and international responses to those conditions, and the potential impacts of global developments (including global economic conditions and uncertainties, the effects of the United Kingdom’s referendum to withdraw from the European Union, unrest, the conflict in Syria, terrorist acts by ISIS or others, potential conflict or crisis with North Korea and potential pandemics);

• | the effects of future actions or inaction of the U.S. government or related agencies, including those related to the U.S. debt ceiling, monetary policy and policy and regulation changes advanced or proposed by President Trump and his administration;

• | weather and natural disasters (e.g., hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, lightning strikes, lava flows and the potential effects of climate change, such as more severe storms and rising sea levels), including their impact on the Company's and Utilities' operations and the economy;

• | the timing and extent of changes in interest rates and the shape of the yield curve;

• | the ability of the Company and the Utilities to access the credit and capital markets (e.g., to obtain commercial paper and other short-term and long-term debt financing, including lines of credit, and, in the case of HEI, to issue common stock) under volatile and challenging market conditions, and the cost of such financings, if available;

• | the risks inherent in changes in the value of the Company’s pension and other retirement plan assets and ASB’s securities available for sale;

• | changes in laws, regulations, market conditions and other factors that result in changes in assumptions used to calculate retirement benefits costs and funding requirements;

• | the impact of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act) and of the rules and regulations that the Dodd-Frank Act requires to be promulgated;

• | increasing competition in the banking industry (e.g., increased price competition for deposits, or an outflow of deposits to alternative investments, which may have an adverse impact on ASB’s cost of funds);

• | the impacts of the termination of the Merger with NextEra Energy, Inc. (NEE) and the resulting loss of NEE’s resources, expertise and support (e.g., financial and technological), including potentially higher costs and longer lead times to increase levels of renewable energy and to complete projects like Enterprise Resource Planning/Enterprise Asset Management (ERP/ERM) and smart grids, and a higher cost of capital;

• | the potential delay by the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Hawaii (PUC) in considering (and potential disapproval of actual or proposed) renewable energy proposals and related costs; reliance by the Utilities on outside parties such as the state, independent power producers (IPPs) and developers; and uncertainties surrounding technologies, solar power, wind power, proposed undersea cables, biofuels, environmental assessments required to meet renewable portfolio standards (RPS) goals and the impacts of implementation of the renewable energy proposals on future costs of electricity;

• | the ability of the Utilities to develop, implement and recover the costs of implementing the Utilities’ action plans and business model changes proposed and being developed in response to the four orders that the PUC issued in April 2014, in which the PUC: directed the Utilities to develop, among other things, Power Supply Improvement Plans, a Demand Response Portfolio Plan and a Distributed Generation Interconnection Plan; described the PUC’s inclinations on the future of Hawaii’s electric utilities and the vision, business strategies and regulatory policy changes required to align the Utilities’ business model with customer interests and the state’s public policy goals; and emphasized the need to “leap ahead” of other states in creating a 21st century generation system and modern transmission and distribution grids;

• | capacity and supply constraints or difficulties, especially if generating units (utility-owned or IPP-owned) fail or measures such as demand-side management (DSM), distributed generation (DG), combined heat and power or other firm capacity supply-side resources fall short of achieving their forecasted benefits or are otherwise insufficient to reduce or meet peak demand;

• | fuel oil price changes, delivery of adequate fuel by suppliers and the continued availability to the electric utilities of their energy cost adjustment clauses (ECACs);

• | the continued availability to the electric utilities or modifications of other cost recovery mechanisms, including the purchased power adjustment clauses (PPACs), rate adjustment mechanisms (RAMs) and pension and postretirement benefits other than pensions (OPEB) tracking mechanisms, and the continued decoupling of revenues from sales to mitigate the effects of declining kilowatthour sales;

• | the impact of fuel price volatility on customer satisfaction and political and regulatory support for the Utilities;

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• | the risks associated with increasing reliance on renewable energy, including the availability and cost of non-fossil fuel supplies for renewable energy generation and the operational impacts of adding intermittent sources of renewable energy to the electric grid;

• | the growing risk that energy production from renewable generating resources may be curtailed and the interconnection of additional resources will be constrained as more generating resources are added to the Utilities' electric systems and as customers reduce their energy usage;

• | the ability of IPPs to deliver the firm capacity anticipated in their power purchase agreements (PPAs);

• | the potential that, as IPP contracts near the end of their terms, there may be less economic incentive for the IPPs to make investments in their units to ensure the availability of their units;

• | the ability of the Utilities to negotiate, periodically, favorable agreements for significant resources such as fuel supply contracts and collective bargaining agreements;

• | new technological developments that could affect the operations and prospects of the Utilities and ASB or their competitors;

• | new technological developments, such as the commercial development of energy storage and microgrids, that could affect the operations of the Utilities;

• | cyber security risks and the potential for cyber incidents, including potential incidents at HEI, ASB and the Utilities (including at ASB branches and electric utility plants) and incidents at data processing centers they use, to the extent not prevented by intrusion detection and prevention systems, anti-virus software, firewalls and other general information technology controls;

• | federal, state, county and international governmental and regulatory actions, such as existing, new and changes in laws, rules and regulations applicable to HEI, the Utilities and ASB (including changes in taxation, increases in capital requirements, regulatory policy changes, environmental laws and regulations (including resulting compliance costs and risks of fines and penalties and/or liabilities), the regulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, governmental fees and assessments (such as Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation assessments), and potential carbon “cap and trade” legislation that may fundamentally alter costs to produce electricity and accelerate the move to renewable generation);

• | developments in laws, regulations and policies governing protections for historic, archaeological and cultural sites, and plant and animal species and habitats, as well as developments in the implementation and enforcement of such laws, regulations and policies;

• | discovery of conditions that may be attributable to historical chemical releases, including any necessary investigation and remediation, and any associated enforcement, litigation or regulatory oversight;

• | decisions by the PUC in rate cases and other proceedings (including the risks of delays in the timing of decisions, adverse changes in final decisions from interim decisions and the disallowance of project costs as a result of adverse regulatory audit reports or otherwise);

• | decisions by the PUC and by other agencies and courts on land use, environmental and other permitting issues (such as required corrective actions, restrictions and penalties that may arise, such as with respect to environmental conditions or RPS);

• | potential enforcement actions by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Reserve Board (FRB), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and/or other governmental authorities (such as consent orders, required corrective actions, restrictions and penalties that may arise, for example, with respect to compliance deficiencies under existing or new banking and consumer protection laws and regulations or with respect to capital adequacy);

• | the ability of the Utilities to recover increasing costs and earn a reasonable return on capital investments not covered by RAMs;

• | the risks associated with the geographic concentration of HEI’s businesses and ASB’s loans, ASB’s concentration in a single product type (i.e., first mortgages) and ASB’s significant credit relationships (i.e., concentrations of large loans and/or credit lines with certain customers);

• | changes in accounting principles applicable to HEI, the Utilities and ASB, including the adoption of new U.S. accounting standards, the potential discontinuance of regulatory accounting and the effects of potentially required consolidation of variable interest entities (VIEs) or required capital lease accounting for PPAs with IPPs;

• | changes by securities rating agencies in their ratings of the securities of HEI and Hawaiian Electric and the results of financing efforts;

• | faster than expected loan prepayments that can cause an acceleration of the amortization of premiums on loans and investments and the impairment of mortgage-servicing assets of ASB;

• | changes in ASB’s loan portfolio credit profile and asset quality which may increase or decrease the required level of provision for loan losses, allowance for loan losses and charge-offs;

• | changes in ASB’s deposit cost or mix which may have an adverse impact on ASB’s cost of funds;

• | the final outcome of tax positions taken by HEI, the Utilities and ASB;

• | the risks of suffering losses and incurring liabilities that are uninsured (e.g., damages to the Utilities’ transmission and distribution system and losses from business interruption) or underinsured (e.g., losses not covered as a result of insurance deductibles or other exclusions or exceeding policy limits); and

• | other risks or uncertainties described elsewhere in this report (e.g., Item 1A. Risk Factors) and in other reports previously and subsequently filed by HEI and/or Hawaiian Electric with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of the report, presentation or filing in which they are made. Except to the extent required by the federal securities laws, HEI, Hawaiian Electric, ASB and their subsidiaries undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether written or oral and whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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