US regulator approves BlackRock’s $12.5 billion deal for Global Infrastructure Partners

(Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Friday approved BlackRock’s $12.5 billion deal for Global Infrastructure Partners.

Under the deal, which was announced earlier this year, BlackRock said it would pay $3 billion in cash and roughly 12 million BlackRock shares to acquire the asset management giant.

BlackRock and Global Infrastructure Partners declined to comment.

Last year, a member of the U.S. energy regulator called for scrutiny of top asset managers’ ownership of power utilities, as the oversight body began a review.

Commissioner Mark Christie said the commission had to “apply strict scrutiny when a huge asset manager like Vanguard or State Street or BlackRock is buying a big chunk of either the (utility) company itself or its holding company.”

Global Infrastructure Partners is an infrastructure investor that specializes in investing, owning and operating assets in the energy, transport, digital infrastructure, and water and waste management sectors.

(Reporting by Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru and Ross Kerber in Boston; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)