What are we to make of all the buybacks from consolidators and utilities?
Maybe you haven't noticed, or you're too polite to bring it up. But I'll be big about it and point out the egg on my face. On several occasions during the last few years, I've made the point that, whatever their difficulties, the consolidators are pretty much here to stay. I couldn't see a scenario in which individual units would go back to private ownership.
Well, turns out that's exactly what's happening. As we've reported in our news pages the last couple of months, there has been a slew of buybacks by former owners of contracting firms who sold them to utility subsidiaries or consolidators several years ago during the epidemic of consolidation fever.