Will Exelon Cut the Cord with Comed?

REAL ESTATE: The “Crayola House” on Wisconsin’s shoreline is for sale. PAGE 27 BOOZE: Spirit Hub aims to get craft spirits to the masses. PAGE 3 CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER 5, 2020 | $3.50 Will Exelon cut the cord with ComEd? estimated earnings, Exelon’s It’s a move Wall Street has applauded elsewhere in the power industry stock price is at a multiple that But ComEd’s admissions in for nancial success. badly trails its utility peers, which BY STEVE DANIELS July that it engaged in a bribery Now Wall Street is wondering average about 16 times. Exelon’s More and more, Exelon looks scheme over nearly a decade to why Exelon, unlike virtually ev- stock has fallen 21 percent this like the last man standing in its win lucrative legislation in the ery major electricity company in year, while the Standard & Poor’s industry—and not in a good way. Illinois Capitol—coupled with the U.S., isn’t uncoupling its - Utilities Index is down 7 percent. e Chicago-based nuclear repeated requests for ratepayer nancially struggling power plants e valuation implies that inves- power giant and parent of Com- bailouts from Exelon’s unregu- from its healthy utilities, which tors ascribe essentially no value monwealth Edison long has lated arm that once pledged fe- along with ComEd include mo- to Exelon’s merchant arm even maintained that owning regulat- alty to market forces—make this nopoly power-delivery compa- Exelon CEO Chris Crane though the company projects it ed utilities like ComEd alongside marriage look rocky at best. Rath- nies serving Philadelphia, Balti- will account for nearly 40 percent an unregulated power-genera- er than helping each other, both more and Washington, D.C. ue is really compelling,” says Steve of 2020 earnings, analysts say. tion and supply arm helps both units appear to be taking each “Given the value di erential be- Fleishman, a veteran utility analyst e few major utility companies businesses in times of need. For other down, at least in the polit- tween pure-play utilities and di- at Wolfe Research in New York. years, that strategy paid o . ical realm on which both depend versi ed utilities, we think the val- Indeed, at about 12 times 2020 See EXELON on Page 24 Green rolls in for Chicago’s top lobbyists City data shows an industry in the pink BY A.D. QUIG outdoor advertiser JCDecaux and a liates, the American Bev- As high-pro le prosecutions erage Association and ride-hail- cast harsh light on the role of ing giants Uber and Lyft. money in local politics, data But the numbers are some- from the city of Chicago reveals what murky: Data re ects self-re- torrents of cash fueling the in u- ported compensation and client ence-peddling industry. information from lob- Chicago lobbyists byists to the Chicago have raked in $171 mil- Board of Ethics, which lion from clients in the has never taken any CANDY CRUSH BOEHM R. JOHN past eight years, with the lobbyists to task over highly connected reap- the accuracy of their Halloween candy makers prepare for pandemic trick-or-treat BY ALLY MAROTTI ing the biggest rewards, reports. according to Chicago Annual lobbyist MARS WRIGLEY had been planning Halloween 2020 shelves as early as July, but 55 percent of its sales Board of Ethics data dat- compensation rose for two years. for the season occur in those last two weeks. ing back to 2012. 43 percent between e treat- lled season is the biggest for the is year, the pandemic has riddled those hey- Among top-paid lob- John Kelly Jr. Mayor Rahm Eman- Chicago-based Snickers maker, and its most days of candy sales with uncertainty. byists over that stretch: uel’s rst and last full complex, says Tim LeBel, president of sales at Fewer people are expected to celebrate Hal- All-Circo’s John Kelly Jr. ($12.3 years in o ce, peaking at $24.5 Mars Wrigley U.S. ere are packaging trends to loween, with parents wary of sending their million), Michael Kasper ($10.3 million in 2018. In the rst four gure out, new avors to develop. kids to collect candy from strangers’ commu- million) and Cozen O’Connor’s full reporting periods since Lori It culminates in the last two weeks of Octo- nal buckets. As a result, Chicago-area candy John Dunn ($7.5 million) . Com- Lightfoot took o ce, outlays ber, in a mad dash for trick-or-treat candy. Mars panies shelling out millions to Wrigley’s Halloween candy starts hitting retailers’ See CANDY on Page 20 sway Chicago o cials include See LOBBYISTS on Page 25 NEWSPAPER l VOL. 43, NO. 40 l COPYRIGHT 2020 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED JOE CAHILL CRAIN’S LIST The rise in Deere’s stock price Introducing our flies in the face of uncertain end newest ranking: markets for farm equipment. Chicago’s largest But a few clouds are gathering out-of-town on the horizon. PAGE 4 employers. PAGE 17 2 OCTOBER 5, 2020 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS A crime plan that looks good on paper, at least Of all the things Lori Lightfoot perts on Chicago and crime, my sional to handle crisis situations. was elected to x, none is more gut reaction was confirmed. Talk It’s a good idea, one that makes crucial to Chicago’s future than is cheap. Lining up the money a lot more sense than mere de- somehow ending our tale of two and the political will to actually funding of police on one hand, or GREG HINZ cities—one mostly white, pros- accomplish things is the trick. mindlessly sending police with ON POLITICS perous and safe, the other mostly An indication of just how dif- guns to deal with volatile domes- people of color, working-class cult it will be to implement this tic disputes and drug cases on at best and plagued with violent report is embodied in the person the other. How would the Laquan nice metrics to measure whether decade. Lee told me that’s part crime. But how? Lightfoot’s oce provided to dis- McDonald incident have ended if such expenditures are working of a national trend as more and We nally have at least a cuss this plan with me: Susan Lee, more than cops were there? as they should or merely wasting more cities move to stop treating partial answer. In an action a few deputy mayor for public safety. But two days after I spoke money. 16- and 17-year-olds as adults. days ago that didn’t get near- Lee says the report was with Lee, word leaked that she is But how do you pay for it in But she couldn’t explain ohand designed with an eye headed out, that aldermen want a city that faces a $1.2 billion whether that trend is at all linked toward “shifting from something dierent and more COVID-19-related budget hole? to the growth in gang conict THE PROPOSAL IS CHOCK FULL OF police-only solutions to eective to reverse a terrible year One source I spoke with says at here. GOOD STUFF. BUT LINING UP THE a public health ap- of rising shooting and fatalities. least $50 million a year will be Bottom line, Lightfoot’s plan is proach” toward violence. Welcome to the real world. needed to make a real impact. a beginning in a city where po- MONEY AND THE POLITICAL WILL TO Consistent with that, the Another promising section of Beyond that, the whole idea of licing strategy has changed from nancially strapped city the report deals with bulking up policing reform remains an am- mayor to mayor and season to ACCOMPLISH THINGS IS THE TRICK. is hoping that founda- support services in neighbor- bitious and controversial subject. season. Young people who have tions and other private hoods that clearly need them and Can’t you just hear the Springeld jobs and solid support structures, ly enough attention, Lightfoot sources will come to the fore with sharply expanding funding for debate now over the report’s spe- who know that hard work will nally laid out her blueprint on money to back things such as violence-prevention programs, cic proposal to begin licensing pay o, are far less likely to get in how to deal with the crime piece. economic development, mental which got just $11 million in this police, to make it easier to track trouble than someone who sees Titled “Our City, Our Safety: A health services, youth crime-di- year’s city budget. Such pro- and discipline cops with trouble- little future. I think we’re guring Comprehensive Plan to Reduce version programs and the like. grams were particularly eective some records? that out. Violence in Chicago,” the pro- One particularly promising in helping Los Angeles emerge en there’s the eyebrow-rais- So let’s take this plan as a start- posal is chock full of good stu. idea, I thought, is establishing a from a period of turmoil pitting ing nding in the report that ing point and try to determine It’s hard to disagree with huge pilot program that in some cases communities against police in arrests of juveniles for criminal out how to pay for and imple- sections of it. will dispatch not only a police of- the same way that has occurred oenses by Chicago police have ment it. Doing that will be lots But in talking with outside ex- cer but a mental health profes- here.

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