Cox: The Global Renewable Energy Giant Born in a Small Alicante Town

TodoAlicante kicks off this Saturday, with the case of the Cox business group, and over three consecutive weekends, a series of reports on the protagonists of the 2025 Alicante Awards, granted by this newspaper, the leading digital native of the province of Alicante. The awardees will receive their distinctions on November 19, starting at 7:30 PM, at a gala organized by TodoAlicante in Puntapiedra, in the Alicante capital.

Nearly a decade ago, a young entrepreneur from Alicante, Enrique Riquelme, decided to establish a company in a village of 7,000 inhabitants in the south of the province, focusing on renewable energies, specifically solar photovoltaics. The venture, not without risk, came after a journey through Central America, where he made his fortune and realized the future of these energies.

Ten years later, what began as Cox Energy, now Cox, is a renewable energy and water giant. In the first six months of 2025, it has invoiced 498 million euros, a 62% increase from the previous year, and recorded an EBITDA of 82 million euros. All to achieve a net profit of 13 million. The company's good performance allows it to continue with its roadmap for the current year, anticipating revenues reaching 1.2 billion euros, with a profit of 80 million and an EBITDA soaring to 230 million.

This is a result of the strong performance of its divisions with desalination plants in Abu Dhabi or Morocco, as well as solar plants in Central and South America. In fact, for the period between 2025 and 2027, the company has a broad portfolio of bidding projects exceeding 3,950,000 cubic meters daily.

Cox has an ambitious investment plan. After acquiring Iberdrola's business in Mexico for 4.2 billion euros and completing its strategic plan three years early, it now owns 15 operational plants with over 2,600 MW of installed capacity, the largest supplier of qualified users in Mexico with a 25% market share and over 20 TWh, giving it a solid position in the Mexican market.

Indeed, it has set its sights on Mexico, where it plans to invest 10.7 billion euros over the next five years, including this purchase of Iberdrola, the investment in new energy assets for more than 4 billion dollars, and in water concession assets in the country of up to 1.5 billion dollars.

But these are not the only investments it will carry out in the coming years. The Alicante energy giant recently presented its 2028 Strategic Plan, in which it plans to invest more than 5.5 billion euros in the next two years and consolidate its growth in water and energy in six key regions: Mexico, the Central Arc (Panama, Guatemala, Colombia, and Ecuador), Chile, Brazil, Africa and the Middle East (AME), and Spain. All this without losing sight of the United States as a key market.

An ambitious growth plan in which Cox expects revenues to range between 6,000-6,500 million euros in 2028 from 1,200 in 2025, which would boost its turnover and enhance its position in the renewable market.

The Alicante native decided at just 20 years old to go to Panama after mortgaging an apartment his family owned. There, he set up a concrete factory and faced challenging times when he wasn't paid, even pawning a watch his father gave him to afford a few days in the country. Despite all this, he persevered and, upon receiving the money owed to him, an opportunity arose.

It was following the Panama Canal expansion in 2012 that Riquelme made a name for himself in the country by having the monopoly on a sand necessary for these works. After these projects, he realized that the country's growth was not aligned with energy, so he focused on this.

With projects in Panama and, especially in Guatemala, Cox Energy grew and began developing products in Mexico, Chile, and Spain, with photovoltaic energy and water as the two main pillars of its work. However, it wasn't until the acquisition of Abengoa that the group could start facing the major competitors. "With Abengoa came the opportunity to compete, that integration was also key," explained Riquelme.