The nonprofit Hawaii Island Electric Cooperative has retained an investment banker with years of experience with mergers and acquisitions as it continues to explore the idea of public ownership of the Big Island’s electric utility.
Bill Collet, who was a key figure in Kauai Island Utility Cooperative’s acquisition of Kauai Electric in 2002, will work as an adviser to the fledgling nonprofit.
In documents filed Tuesday with the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, Collet writes he is “employed by, retained by or assisting” HIEC and KIUC — both intervenors in the pending $4.3 billion sale of Hawaiian Electric Industries to Florida-based NextEra Energy — and requested access to confidential information covered by the commission’s protective order filed in March.
Collet is president and founder of Kansas City-based financial advisory firm Collet &Associates, which concentrates on strategic acquisitions by cooperatives, the development and financing of utility-scale renewable energy facilities, and financing alternatives for energy efficiency and conservation programs, according to his website.
“(Collet) is recognized for developing a template for the successful acquisition of utility properties on behalf of electric cooperatives,” the website reads.
In an email Wednesday to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, Collet said his policy as an adviser for the last 25 years has been not to comment on his clients’ work.
Marco Mangelsdorf, president of ProVision Solar and director of HIEC, said Collet has been working with KIUC since its beginning and that HIEC recently brought him on board on an advisory basis. However, when asked why HIEC retained Collet and what role he would play, Mangelsdorf referred the newspaper to the Collet &Associates website.
In 1999, a group of Kauai leaders came together to form the nonprofit KIUC. Three years and one failed purchase attempt later, it successfully bought Connecticut-based Citizens Communications’ Kauai Electric for $215 million.
David Bissell, president and CEO of KIUC, said Collet “played a key role” in the Kauai co-op’s formation and advised KIUC on valuation — how much to offer — to support its successful purchase offer.
“Bill was not associated with the first, failed purchase attempt,” Bissell wrote in an email. “Bill also provided financial analysis, projections and testimony to the Hawaii PUC in support of the KIUC transaction.”
Bissell added Collet has “extensive experience” in electric cooperative merger and acquisitions, and has advised on the majority of the co-operative acquisition deals that have taken place over the last decade.
In addition to KIUC, Collet &Associates has been involved in acquisitions by utility cooperatives in Alaska, Vermont, Oklahoma, Illinois and Wisconsin.
In a previous interview, Bissell said he sees a strong potential for the Big Island to follow in Kauai’s footsteps and control its own electricity destiny.
Meanwhile, in documents filed with the PUC, HEI and NextEra have made clear that spinning off any part of the company, including Hawaii Electric Light Co. Inc., is not something the companies have considered or plan to consider.
HIEC and KIUC are among 29 entities granted intervenor status in the proposed HEI-NextEra merger. The PUC, which still has to sign off on the merger for it to go through, has set an interim deadline of Aug. 31 for all intervenor testimony to be complete.
Email Chris D’Angelo at cdangelo@hawaiitribune-herald.com.