Councilor Hart Concerned About AES, BlackRock Deal
INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis City-County Councilor Michael-Paul Hart has his concerns about AES potentially being bought out by the private equity firm, BlackRock.
On Monday, the AES Corporation announced that it will be acquired by a consortium of global investors, including the EQT Infrastructure VI fund and Global Infrastructure Partners, which is a part of BlackRock. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the Qatar Investment Authority are also part of the purchasing group.
The deal values the energy company at a total equity value of $10.7 billion. The total enterprise value of the sale is around $33.4 billion. If unanimously approved by AES’s board, the deal could close in late 2026 or early 2027, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals.
“One of the concerns that I have personally, but I also hear from a lot of people, is we’ve got a for-profit company coming to buy a public utility,” said Councilor Hart on WIBC’s “The Hammer and Nigel Show” on Tuesday.
The potential acquisition of AES by a group of private investors first came up on July 8. However, council member Hart said for years, private equity has looked to gain control of public utilities.
“This has been going on longer than I had known about it, since the data center stuff,” Hart said.
According to Hart, Gov. Mike Braun wrote a letter a few years back about AES converting coal plants into gas plants, during a time when “they didn’t have to do it.” When the company was being looked into about that, they said they had ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) goals to hit.
“So what that caused is they shut off the coal, use the gas, and rates go up,” said Hart. “That’s why everyone’s upset.”
With BlackRock coming in to take over the utility, Councilor Hart is worried, like many of the people he says he’s spoken to about this deal, that the service could get worse, rates will soar, and that a private equity firm will essentially be putting profits over people.
“If AES at the time, who was operating and trying to produce for their shareholders, is making decisions based on hitting those goals, what does that mean for us now going into the future when we have a legit private equity firm owning this company?” he asked.
Operationally, Hart said AES will be the same. When asked if this deal would impact rates:
“We’re going to have to wait and see.”
AES serves about 1.1 million customers through its electric utilities in Indiana and Ohio.
In a Tuesday email sent out by AES Indiana, they said they decided to cancel a community open house at an Indianapolis YMCA “due to threats.”
Councilor Hart Concerned About AES, BlackRock Deal was originally published on wibc.com
