LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two top executives at Edison
International sold $17.7 million of their company’s stock when it
climbed to its highest price since 2007, after Edison reached a major
settlement involving the defunct San Onofre nuclear power plant in
Southern California, regulatory filings show.
On March 31,
Chairman Ted Craver exercised stock options held since 2005 and sold
172,644 shares for an average of $56 each, according to federal
regulatory filings Wednesday. He profited by about $4.1 million from the
option price of roughly $32 per share, according to Edison.
On
the same day, Chief Financial Officer James Scilacci sold 143,438 shares
at an average of $56, a transaction that netted him $4.3 million,
Edison said. He exercised options that were granted in 2005 and 2009 at
prices of $25 and $32 per share.
On March 27, Edison, the majority
owner of San Onofre, announced a proposed agreement with minority owner
San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and consumer advocates to end a
long-running dispute over who gets the bill for the shuttered nuclear
plant, which was closed permanently last year.
If approved by
state regulators, customers of the two utilities would get an estimated
$1.4 billion in refunds and other savings.
Edison’s share price
climbed from $53.89 on March 27 to $56.61 on March 31, a gain of about 5
percent and the highest price since 2007.
The stock sales were reported, as required, to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Edison spokesman Charles Coleman declined to comment on the timing of the sales.
A
company statement said Craver’s stock options did not expire until
2015. He continues to hold 221,903 shares in a trust. Scilacci retains
about 40,000 shares, most of it held indirectly in a retirement savings
plan, the filings showed. The stock options he exercised last week did
not expire until 2015 and 2019.
Edison closed the seaside plant
for good in June but it hadn’t produced electricity since January 2012,
after a small radiation leak led to the discovery of extensive damage to
tubing that carried radioactive water. The problems at San Onfore,
located between Los Angeles and San Diego, centered on steam generators
that were installed during a $670 million overhaul in 2009 and 2010.
After
the plant was shut down, tests found some generator tubes were so badly
eroded that they could fail and possibly release radiation, a stunning
finding inside the nearly new equipment.
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AP Business Writer Alex Veiga contributed to this report.
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