Private equity and the regulation of financialised infrastructure: The case of Macquarie in Britain’s water and energy networks

Main author: Van Waeyenberge, Elisa
Other authors: Bayliss, Kate
Bowles, Benjamin
Format: Journal Article           
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id eprints-37185
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
description This paper explores the ways that private equity practices of financialised value extraction have migrated to the water sector in England. In line with the financialisation literature more broadly, we show how private equity investors have found innovative financial mechanisms for increasing investor returns that are unrelated to productive activity. The resulting financialised, highly-indebted corporate structures create costs and risks for utilities which raise concerns for social equity. The regulatory response to these financial innovations has been slow and had limited effect. The regulatory toolbox, governed by a narrative of competition, has consistently been biased towards investors and misses much of the scope of financialised corporate extraction. A review of the activities of a major private equity investor, Macquarie, active across numerous infrastructure sectors in the UK, illustrates the dynamic way in which infrastructure funds are moved across investments and sectors in ways that can escape regulatory processes and increase investor returns. The paper shows how the regulator is caught in an impossible bind in meeting the contradictory and contested interests of investors, end users and the state such that we question whether the socially equitable regulation of financialised infrastructure can ever be possible.
format Journal Article
author Van Waeyenberge, Elisa
author_facet Van Waeyenberge, Elisa
Bayliss, Kate
Bowles, Benjamin
authorStr Van Waeyenberge, Elisa
author_letter Van Waeyenberge, Elisa
author2 Bayliss, Kate
Bowles, Benjamin
author2Str Bayliss, Kate
Bowles, Benjamin
title Private equity and the regulation of financialised infrastructure: The case of Macquarie in Britain’s water and energy networks
publisher Taylor and Francis
publishDate 2023
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/37185/