Minnesota regulators signed off on the final approval needed to sell Allete to a pair of private investment firms.
The five-member Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on Friday voted unanimously to approve the sale of Minnesota Power’s Duluth-based parent company to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and BlackRock-owned Global Infrastructure Partners.
The proposed $6.2 billion deal, announced in May 2024, drew concern over private equity’s ownership of a utility and the potential for rising electricity rates.
The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, a consumer advocacy group, several environmental groups and Minnesota Power’s largest industrial customers were opposed to the sale, and an administrative law judge in July recommended, in a non-binding opinion, that the PUC reject the deal as it wasn’t in the public interest.
Meanwhile, the Minnesota Department of Commerce, unions, a different consumer advocacy group and several clean energy groups supported the deal.
Allete, which has been publicly traded on the stock market, has maintained that going private under the ownership of GIP and CPP would allow it to more quickly and reliably access the money needed to fund its transition away from coal and carbon emissions and reach Minnesota’s law requiring 100% of the state’s electricity to be carbon-free by 2040.
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