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Poseidon is a multi-national corporation owned by Warbug Pincus, a large investment firm. Hoover’s online describes Warburg:
“Infusions of cash from Warbug Pincus keep companies in the pink (and black). The partner-owned investment firm has holdings in more than 120 companies in North and South American, Asian, and Europe. It buys stakes in both established firms and startups, and engages in acquisitions and restructurings, usually joing the boards of companies in which it has interests [such as Poseidon]. The firm invests in a range of industries; prominent among its h oldings are health care, media, technology, and energy companies. Founded in 1969, Warburg Pincus is a pioneer in reasing investment capital from financial institutions rather than wealth families. It also is the largest foreign private equity investor in India.”
Warburg’s web site www.warburgpincus.com/team_frame.htm gives the following account of Poseidon’s origin (the date this was written is not clear, but possible several years ago or more):
“In 1996, Warburg Pincus and a group of former independent power executives and former General Electric employees (including Walt Winrow) formed Poseidon to pursue project development opportunities in the water industry. Poseidon has seven water projects in operation, including the Tirton project in Cranston, Rhode Island (one of the first privatizations of a munipal water treatment facility in the US); and five private water treatment facilities in Mexico...Poseidon is developing several high profile desalination projects across the United States including Southern California and Texas.” [According to a recent phone conversation with Poseidon VP Billy Ownes, the Texas plant is not going forward at this time.]
According to company information, Poseidon is the largest private owner of water facilities in Mexico as well as a “leading developer of water and wastewater public-private partnerships in North America.”
Poseidon boasts on various web sites of being the owner of the largest desalination facility in America, at Tampa Bay, Florida. However, that desal plant, the only large one that Poseidon has ever built and operated, was taken over by the local water authority after Poseidon’s failure to make it work and two bankruptcies (see Costs).
Poseidon is constructing a desalination plant in Carlsbad, California, which would be about half the size of the one it wishes to build in Huntington Beach. It desires to build a desalination plant in Texas, but has had no success so far.
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