ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— New Mexico’s utility regulator today found that Blackstone and TXNM Energy violated state law by completing a $400 million stock transaction without receiving required prior approval. The state’s Public Regulation Commission ordered the companies to reverse the transaction and pay $300,000 in fines, the maximum allowed under state law.

“This violation should be the nail in the coffin that ends Blackstone’s bid to take over New Mexico’s largest utility,” said Lavran Johnson, an Albuquerque-based attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Blackstone has shown us exactly how it operates and it isn’t in the public interest. This private equity firm deserves to be sent packing, not rewarded with control over our electricity. I’m glad the commission is standing up for ratepayers and showing that there will be consequences when a public utility or private company breaks the law.”

Since last fall, Blackstone and TXNM have been seeking approval for a deal that would allow the world’s largest private equity firm to acquire the parent company of PNM, New Mexico’s largest electric utility.

That proceeding before New Mexico’s Public Regulation Commission has been on hold for more than three months while regulators determined whether a large stock transaction intended to support the acquisition violated state law. The Center for Biological Diversity has called for Blackstone’s application to be dismissed.

Today’s decision adopts recommendations from two hearing examiners, who advised the companies to withdraw their acquisition application and start over if they still wanted to pursue the deal. The commission levied a total of $300,000 in fines against TXNM and two companies Blackstone created for the merger.

“Blackstone’s bid to take over TXNM is tainted by the illegal stock sale, and it should be dead on arrival,” said Johnson. “New Mexicans have made it clear that we don’t want Blackstone to own our public utility, and we’ll keep fighting until this deal is defeated.”