DULUTH, Minn. — Allete, the parent company of Minnesota Power and Superior, Water, Light and Power, announced Monday the company has agreed to be acquired by a partnership between the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Global Infrastructure Partners.

The sale price was announced at $6.2 billion, or $67 per share. The stock had been priced at $64.47 before trading opened Monday.

The sale comes months after speculation first surfaced on Wall Street that Allete officials had been searching for a suitor.

Allete officials said the company, which would go from publicly traded to a privately owned firm, will remain headquartered in Duluth, retain its workforce, and honor all union contracts and labor agreements. Allete CEO Bethany Owen will also remain at the helm.

In an interview with the Duluth News Tribune on Monday, Owen said taking the company private would help it access “capital ready to deploy” for nearly $4 billion in clean energy and infrastructure projects planned over the next five years. She noted it takes time to raise capital in the public markets, which are volatile.

“We’re looking to double the size of Allete over the next five years,” Owen said. “And when you think about that amount of capital that we needed to have access to, we wanted to make sure that we had ready access to that. And these partners, they’re incredibly well-resourced, very well-respected. They’re not operators — they’re truly investors — and they provide us that access to capital that we need to execute our strategy.”

The CPP Investments is a professional investment management organization that manages a fund for the more than 22 million contributors and beneficiaries of the Canada Pension Plan. It has more than $590 billion (Canadian) in assets.

New York City-based GIP is among the world’s largest infrastructure investors, with approximately $112 billion in assets under management, annual revenues of approximately $73 billion, and over 115,000 employees.

In January, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, agreed to buy GIP for $12.5 billion, Reuters reported. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2024, BlackRock said at the time.

“We don’t believe it will mean anything for our transaction,” Owen told the News Tribune, noting it’s a separate transaction.

Allete’s board of directors unanimously approved CPP Investments’ and GIP’s acquisition of Allete, which is expected to close in mid-2025. However, it is subject to approval by Allete shareholders and regulatory agencies, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, as well as other customary financial closing conditions.

The Minnesota Power and Superior, Water, Light and Power subsidiaries of Allete would remain regulated utilities in Minnesota and Wisconsin. In addition to the two local utilities, Allete also owns several wind-generating, hydropower-generating, electrical transmission lines and other energy assets. The company has focused in recent years on transitioning away from coal-fired power plants to a mix of hydro, wind, solar and gas-power electrical generation.

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Nancy Clanton | (TNS) The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Hannah Johnson first went to Walt Disney World with her mother while still in college. After a brief break because of COVID, the Ringgold, Ga., resident has resumed their trips together as an annual event.

“I decided (the annual trip) was going to be what I did for her,” Johnson said, “kind of as a payback for all the things she did for me. I could just see how happy she was and how much it meant.”

According to Meghan Hayes, an independent travel adviser, adults taking trips with their parents is a growing trend.

“This trend specifically is growing because less people are deciding to have children, or they’re deciding to have children later on,” Hayes told Yahoo Life, “but they’re still ready to go on bucket list-style trips and want to include their family in these trips.”

Hayes said adult children traveling with their parents has grown to be nearly 25% of her business, up from about 5% to 10% before the pandemic.

Yahoo Life talked to people who said they believe it’s important to travel with their parents, and how they think it benefits them.

“My mom loves the Germany pavilion (at EPCOT) so we spend like an hour there,” Johnson said. “Then at Magic Kingdom, we go to Casey’s Corner (a quick-service hot dog restaurant inside the park), then sit and people watch. We like to do the PeopleMover (a tram-style attraction that gives park guests a tour of the Tomorrowland area) and more chill things, because (my mom) is not a huge thrill person.”

How do these trips help her mom?

“My mom has anxiety, so just learning how to navigate and deal with a crowd and not just freak out and shut down is a huge deal,” she said.

Megan duBois, who wrote the Yahoo Life article, said she takes a few trips each year with her parents, who are in their late 50s and early 60s.

The author and her mother, 63, recently traveled to Machu Picchu. Although the older woman needed a little help reaching the top, she nevertheless made it to the spot overlooking the ruins.

“(M)y mom and I sat together and I leaned over to tell her how proud I was of her and that she can still do anything that she sets her mind to, even if it’s scary,” duBois wrote.

For Carly Caramanna, traveling with her mother is a way to connect. “It’s exciting,” she told Yahoo Life, “because instead of visiting each other’s homes, we explore new destinations.”

The pair head to a domestic destination every other month, with a European trip each winter. “It’s like payback in the best kind of way,” she said.

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©2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Katie Walsh | Tribune News Service

It’s been over five decades since the first “Planet of the Apes” movie premiered in 1968, and this week, the 10th “Planet of the Apes” film bows in theaters, “The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” seven years since the last “Apes” film. A franchise filled with sequels, remakes and reboots, here’s your guide to all things “Planet of the Apes” to get you ready for the new movie.

Based on a 1963 sci-fi novel by French author Pierre Boulle (he also wrote the novel “The Bridge Over the River Kwai”), the original “Planet of the Apes” films were produced by 20th Century Fox. Since that studio now resides under the Disney corporate umbrella, all nine previous films are available to stream on Hulu (owned by Disney). The five original franchise films, made between 1968 and 1973, and the 2001 Tim Burton remake are also all available on Starz (or for rent on iTunes, Prime Video, etc.), while the four franchise reboot films (2011-2017) are also available on Max (or for rent elsewhere). But a Hulu subscription will get you access to all the “Apes” movies you can stand.

The 1968 “Planet of the Apes,” directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starring Charlton Heston, was written by “Twilight Zone” creator Rod Serling and “Kwai” screenwriter Michael Wilson. Heston stars as an astronaut who travels to a strange planet ruled by apes (then realizes he was on Earth all along). The film was a smash success and earned Oscar nominations for the score and costumes, and an honorary Oscar for its makeup effects, the first given to a makeup artist.

Capitalizing on the success, the producers moved quickly on a sequel, “Beneath the Planet of the Apes” (1970), in which Heston only appeared in a few scenes before his character was killed off. In the film, another astronaut travels into the future and finds Heston’s character imprisoned by a group of subterranean human mutants. The film was not a critical success but it was a box-office hit nonetheless. More apes!

“Escape from the Planet of the Apes” (1971), “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” (1972) and “Battle for the Planet of the Apes” (1973) brought the story back to Earth and used the sci-fi story of the apes as an allegory for contemporary social issues, including racial injustice. The character of Caesar, played by Roddy McDowall, who leads an ape rebellion, was introduced in “Conquest” — more on him later.

In the 1970s, there was also a live-action CBS TV series, and an animated series, but the franchise died out throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, despite efforts to reboot it. They finally succeeded in 2001 with Tim Burton’s remake starring Mark Wahlberg, Helena Bonham Carter and Paul Giamatti. Wahlberg stars as an astronaut who travels through a wormhole to an ape planet where humans are enslaved and ultimately leads a human rebellion. It was a difficult production and not well-received, but still did well at the box office, which is why they keep making these movies.

Ten years later, husband-wife screenwriting duo Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver relaunched the “Apes” franchise with their concept for “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” focusing on our old pal Caesar from “Conquest” and “Battle.” “Rise” was directed by Rupert Wyatt, and Caesar was portrayed by motion-capture king Andy Serkis. The film was a critical and financial success, earning an Oscar nomination for visual effects. Because this is “Planet of the Apes,” that meant one thing: sequels.

Future “The Batman” director Matt Reeves took over directing on “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” (2014) and “War for the Planet of the Apes” (2017), following Caesar’s journey as an ape leader, from uprising to armed clashes with humans. The films were great successes with critics, fans and moviegoers, and “War” brought Caesar’s story to a fitting conclusion. The latest film, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” takes place 300 years after the events of “War,” introducing a new cast of characters.

Hopefully that brings you up to speed with a brief overview of all things “Planet of the Apes,” one of the most enduring, and popular, film franchises in cinema history.

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(Katie Walsh is the Tribune News Service film critic and co-host of the “Miami Nice” podcast.)

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