BlackRock started buying American public utility companies
They buy them with debt, when the purchase goes through the debt goes to the power company, not to BlackRock
This means entire states power bills will instantly rise to pay off the debt. It’s a racket and it’s started
“What if I told you that your electricity bill isn't just paying for the power you use? It might also be paying off Wall Street's debt.”
“Here's how private capital works. Firms like asset management giant BlackRock don't usually buy companies with their own money. Instead, they raise giant funds from pension systems, governments, and wealthy investors. When they go shopping, whether it's for a factory, a toll road, even your power company, they use part equity from those investors and part debt borrowed from banks and bond markets.
Here's the catch: that debt doesn't sit on BlackRock's books. It sits on the company they just bought, and it's the company, not the asset manager, that has to pay it back. Now, when the company is a utility, like water, gas, or electricity, it's not just any business. Utilities are monopolies. You can't just shop around for a new power company. So, where does the money to pay back that debt come from? It comes from you, the ratepayers. In leveraged acquisitions of utilities, the bills you pay every month are the revenue stream that services Wall Street's loans.
Let's take a real case. Last month, state regulators approved a $6.2 billion buyout of ALLETE, the parent company of Minnesota Power, the state's main power utility. The buyers, Global Infrastructure Partners, which is owned by BlackRock, together with Canada's Pension Fund. A public utility that hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans rely on is shifting into the hands of private capital. Critics, like one administrative law judge who advised the acquisition be stopped because it's not in the public interest, warn that buyers are paying a big premium over the utility's actual worth here, potentially hundreds of millions above market value.
And when investors pay more, they expect to earn more back. Where's that money gonna come from? Well, the fear is from higher rates or cuts to services, bigger bills for you while your utilities get worse, while BlackRock collects steady fees for managing the investment”