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By Jerry Knight
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 27, 1998

This year 17 new businesses broke into the list of the Top 100 public companies in the Washington area and four already are in line for next year.

Condor Technology Solutions Inc. of McLean, Consolidation Capital Corp. of Washington, Capital Automotive REIT of Arlington and Sodexho Marriott Services Inc. of Bethesda are “instant giants” created by the wave of business restructurings that is reshaping the Washington economy.

With annual revenue ranging from more than $100 million to more than $4 billion, all four would rank among the region’s biggest operations except for one peculiarity: None of them existed until a few weeks ago. The Top 100 are ranked by revenue for their most recently completed fiscal year. Consolidation Capital and Capital Automotive REIT weren’t in business at all until recently; Condor and Sodexho Marriott were in business, but not in their present incarnation.

Sodexho Marriott Services was created March 27 when Marriott International Inc. spun off its food service and facilities management business to shareholders and simultaneously merged that new venture with the U.S. operations of Sodexho Alliance of France.

The two operations generated a combined $4 billion in sales last year – enough to make Sodexho Marriott one of Washington’s 10 largest companies, if it had been a company. But the combined operation existed only on paper. Revenue and profit from the Marriott operations that become part of Sodexho are included in the financial reports for Marriott International.

Condor was eight separate computer consulting companies before an initial public offering in February. In one complex transaction, the eight merged and went public all at the same time, producing what’s know on Wall Street as a “poof” company – as if created by the wave of a magic wand.

The process that gave birth to Condor was a fast-forward version of the strategy that produced Consolidation Capital. Consolidation raised $552 million in an IPO late last year and then in January began buying up electrical contracting companies, janitorial services and other building maintenance firms around the country. The firms that Consolidation is consolidating had sales last year of more than $500 million, setting a pace that could produce revenue of more than $1 billion by the time the company is a year old. But for fiscal 1997 Consolidation showed a paltry $2 million in revenue.

Capital Automotive REIT is growing almost as rapidly, buying up new-car showrooms and used-car lots from dealers, then leasing them back to the old owners. Earlier this month, the company announced plans to pay $98 million in cash and stock for 23 properties, bringing its total to 98, but when fiscal 1997 ended the REIT had generated only about $15 million in revenue.

But as long-suffering sports fans have been known to say, wait until next year.