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essay

Debt Is a Weapon. Use It or Get Used by It

Lee McCabe

09 Nov 2025 — 9 min read

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News (w/e 2/27/26)

GIP and EQT Close In on $40 Billion AES Take-Private BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners and EQT are in advanced talks to take AES Corp. private in a deal worth roughly $40 billion including debt, which would make it one of the largest infrastructure buyouts ever. The driver is simple

03 Mar 2026

Deals (w/e 2/27/26)

BlackRock GIP and EQT Target Clean Energy Assets from AES BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners and EQT are circling clean energy assets tied to AES at a moment when renewable valuations have reset hard. After the 2025 drop off, private equity is not retreating. It is re underwriting. The math

03 Mar 2026

Operating partners need a badge and a gun, not another steering committee invite.

Private equity keeps hiring “value creation” people, then sends them into portfolio companies with zero mandate, zero budget, and the authority level of a polite email. And then everyone acts confused when the plan doesn’t happen. Obvious value creation: We underwrote 300 bps of margin expansion from “procurement synergies.

03 Mar 2026

The easiest way for an agency to look good is to pick a KPI that can’t be audited.

That’s the whole game. You ask for growth. They pick the metric that moves fastest and connects to cash slowest. Suddenly the weekly update is a victory lap because CTR is up. Or CPM is down. Or “engagement” is strong. Or leads are “cheaper”. None of which tells you

03 Mar 2026
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Private Equity, Without the NDA

Private Equity, Without the NDA

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