PESP in the News – August 2025

September 19, 2025

PESP’s work and research into the private equity industry generates significant media coverage in numerous outlets. Scroll down to see where our expertise was featured in August 2025.

Featured coverage

Stateside: Tuesday, August 12, 2025
Michigan Public
August 12, 2025

PESP Housing Director Jordan Ash spoke with Stateside’s April Baer about the risks facing tenants of private equity-owned manufactured housing parks in Michigan, which has the second most PE-owned manufactured housing communities in the country.

This Is How Wall Street Could Buy Your Power Company
The Lever
August 15, 2025

BlackRock’s proposed takeover of a Minnesota utility presents a troubling prospect for ratepayers in MN and across the country.

“We’re viewing this as a precedent-setting case,” said Alissa Jean Schafer, climate director at the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a private equity watchdog group, which opposes the BlackRock takeover. “This is a new thing, a new potential strategy.”

Walgreens sale to private equity company finalized
Chicago Tribune
August 28, 2025

The massive amount of debt incurred through Sycamore Partners’ acquisition of pharmacy giant Walgreen’s is raising concerns.

The deal with Sycamore put a lot of debt onto Walgreens that Walgreens will now have to pay off, noted Matt Parr, a spokesperson for the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, based in Chicago. When including debt, the transaction is valued at up to $23.7 billion.

“Historically what we’ve seen with private equity closures is there is a high risk of bankruptcies, closures, layoffs,” Parr said.

Walgreens, however, isn’t just any retail business, Parr said. Many people rely on Walgreens to fill their prescriptions, and in some communities, Walgreens is the only place to do that, he said.

“When that pharmacy is closed because they’re not deemed profitable enough by Walgreens or Sycamore, you have a community that just completely lost their connection to necessary pharmacy services,” Parr said.