The San Juan Star BuSÍT B8
COVBt STORY
By MARIA BIRD PICO O' The STAR Staff
HARLOTTE, North Carolina
^ ■
LX — Cogentrix Inc. is growing
at full steam.
J —
After
starting
with
$100,000 in capital a decade
age, the company that wants to build a $525 million coal-fired cogeneration plant in Mayaguez now boasts annual revenues of cióse to $300 million.
Its 10 plants in North Carolina, Virgin ia and Pennsylvania generate not only steam and electricity, but also produced $13.33 million in net income last year, up 46.6 percent from the previous year.
The burgeoning growth of Charlotte's largest privately held company has not gone unnoticed. The independent power producer twice
■
topped Inc. magazine's list of the nation's 500 fastest-growing prívate corporations, once in 1989 and again in 1990, a first for any company.
Cogentrix also is remarkable for the clean trail it leaves in a notoriously dirty industry.
The plant slated for Mayaguez has sparked controversy in Puerto Rico over environmental concerns.
r
But in an industry closely monitored by environmental groups and regulatory agencies, Cogentrix enjoys a good record.
It apparently is marred only by a lawsuit against one of its plants (see story page
Bll) and an accidental job-related death. In fact, the stifif opposition to the Mayaguez plant has become the biggest test yet to Cogentrix's ambitious plans for overseas expansión. "If it continúes to be a political situation, we will pulí out," said George Lewis Jr., chairman of Cogentrix, a company he owns with his sons.
The company has seen other deals go
sour. In 1991, Cogentrix dropped plans to build a 220-megawatt cogeneration plant in the Philippines, fearing political instability and the complexity of financing with a foreign currency. Still, it is not ready to give up on Puerto Rico. The firm has invested $15 million in the de^l, more than double the
$7 million spent in preparation for its last big plant construction. But the potential payback is substan-
Cogentrix Inc. Chairman George T. Lewis Jr. stands in front of the $2 million Cogentrix building in Charlotte, N.C.,that features a serpentina glass-wail front.