PESP in the News – July 2025

August 13, 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 July 2025.

Featured coverage

Wall St. Firms Are Buying Utilities to Tap Into the A.I. Boom
The New York Times
July 17, 2025

Some consumer and progressive groups contend that investment firms shouldn’t own electric utilities because they generally seek to maximize profits, often by burdening the company’s finances with large amounts of debt. That approach, the critics argue, could lead to much higher electricity rates and less reliable service.

“No one in northern Minnesota wants higher utility bills solely to line the pockets of Wall Street-based private equity firms,” said Nichole Heil, senior researcher and campaign director for climate at the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a research and advocacy organization that is critical of the private equity industry.

How ICE Is Outsourcing Mass Deportations
The Lever
July 21, 2025

Private equity firms are proving essential to the Trump Administration’s regime of detainment and deportation.

“That is why companies like Allied have this very long-standing relationship with ICE — decades in the making — because they are reliably obscure, and ICE really benefits from that,” said Azani Creeks, senior research coordinator at the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, which has been investigating the ties between ICE transportation vendors like G4S Secure Solutions and private equity.

She emphasized that ICE’s deportations, which rely on contractors to lease its vans and staff its operations, “wouldn’t be possible without Allied Universal.”

Consumers pay price for private equity investment in private-duty nursing, report finds
McKnight’s Senior Living
July 23, 2025

The private equity business model could exacerbate staffing shortages and compromise care for patients with complex medical needs who rely on private-duty nursing, according to a report published Tuesday by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project. PESP called for stronger antitrust enforcement, limitations on debt financing in healthcare acquisitions, and the expansion of paid caregiver programs with robust oversight to ensure accountability and protect patients.

“Our research shows that private equity’s debt-based business model and focus on outsized returns create risks for some of the most vulnerable patients and their families who rely on private duty nursing agencies,” Mary Bugbee, healthcare director at PESP and author of the report, said in a press release. “Agencies saddled with excessive debt may rely on cost-cutting measures that exacerbate staffing and low wages for nurses, ultimately compromising the quality and accessibility of care.”

PESP noted that private-duty nursing involves more individualized and continuous skilled nursing care than other types of home care. The sector is burdened with persistent labor shortages and low Medicaid reimbursement rates in many states.

“Even within this context, private equity’s investments illustrate that investors see opportunity to make money in private duty nursing,” PESP said.

Michigan among highest rates of private equity-owned mobile home parks in nation, research finds
Michigan Advance
July 22, 2025

The latest update to PESP and MHAction’s Manufactured Housing Tracker shows that Michigan continues to have a disproportionate share of private equity-owned manufactured housing for a state of its size. The updated research also highlights the case of Kristana Estates, a Dewitt, Michigan manufactured housing community owned by private equity firm TIR Equities. In March, residents of Kristana were notified by TIR Equities that the park would be closing, and they had three days to move out. The park’s water was then shut off, although some residents remained. In late June, a Clinton County Judge ordered water service be provided to residents.

“Private equity firms are out there to line their pockets and destroy affordable housing,” said Jason Elridge, a resident of Kristana Estates. “People need to have a community that can prosper and a place where they can feel secure. I don’t think private equity can provide that.”