New Mexico utility regulatory officials pave the way for PNM acquisition hearings to continue • Source New Mexico – USFTB
Hearing examiners for New Mexico’s utility regulators on Friday issued two rulings that pave the way for proceedings to continue in the pending private equity takeover of the state’s largest electric provider.
New Mexico Public Regulation Commission hearing examiners denied a request to investigate a $200 million stock sale between PNM’s parent company and New York-based investment firm Zimmer Partners.
Commissioners earlier this year found that a $400 million stock sale between TXNM Energy Inc. and an affiliate of Blackstone Infrastructure, the private equity firm seeking to acquire it, violated state law because the company’s did not first secure the commission’s approval.
Critics of the proposed acquisition had long argued that the transaction was tied to the merger and should therefore be undone — and PRC members agreed in a 2-1 vote in July.
New Energy Economy and the New Mexico Consumer Protection Alliance, both Santa Fe-based advocacy groups, subsequently asked the commission to investigate the stock sale to Zimmer.
However, hearing examiners in their Friday order wrote that the Zimmer transaction was “fundamentally different.”
“The present record does not demonstrate comparable evidence that Zimmer participated in the acquisition process” or bought the stock shares as part of a merger, they wrote.
The hearing examiners also approved a request from TXNM and Blackstone to revise the terms of their proposed acquisition.
The companies in September announced that they were seeking permission to revise the merger application.
At the time, the companies announced that a revised application would include $220 million in direct customer rate credits; $40 million for workforce and economic development initiatives; $25 million for virtual infrastructure upgrades; and $15 million for PNM’s Good Neighbor Fund, which provides bill payment assistance to low-income households.
“These enhanced commitments put real dollars back in customers’ pockets, protect the people who do this work every day and keep PNM locally managed and locally rooted — while giving us the capital to build the grid New Mexico needs,” Don Tarry, PNM and TXNM president and CEO, said in a statement at the time.
