The Carlyle Group is happy to make money off public infrastructure. Ring the bell for the announced sale of Park Water Company for $327 million in 2015, a mere four years after buying the company for $102 million. That's a $225 million or 220% gross profit. The race is on to see who the City of Missoula will try to wrest control of their public water system from, Carlyle or the announced buyer Algonquin Power.
Carlyle said it would give the City of Missoula first rights to buy Mountain Water, a Park Water subsidiary. It seems Carlyle used the City to up the price for sale to Algonquin. That's the role of government today, to ensure private equity underwriters (PEU's) make more ka-ching through direct sales, publicly awarded franchises and now bidding up asset prices at resale. It's a PEU world, where politicians Red and Blue love PEU.
