Prysmian invests in Romanian cable facility

The new Slatina plant is part of a 3-year, EUR 250 million investment plan aimed at improving the Group’s production capacity and capabilities worldwide, to meet the growing demand for optical cables for the deployment of new high-speed telecommunications networks. “As a worldwide leading player in the industry, we are strongly committed to supporting Governments and Telecom operators in developing new broadband networks by continuing to invest in optical fibre and cable capacity, as well as in new technologies and know-how,” said Philippe Vanhille, Senior Vice President Telecom Business at Prysmian Group. “The digital transformation goes through the development of new broadband and ultra-broadband fibre optic telecommunication networks and only the fibre can provide the necessary speed and reliability. These strategic infrastructures must be based on a high quality and designed to provide high performance over time so as to be ready for the services of the future like 5G, smart cities, smart transportation, smart homes,” continued Vanhille. “Operational excellence is key to confirm competitiveness particularly in dynamic and complex markets like those of optical fibre and cables ones,” added Andrea Pirondini, COO Prysmian Group. “These investments involve existing optical fibre and cable facilities in Italy, France, the Netherlands, North and South America, together with new plants like those in Slatina, Romania, Presov, Slovak Republic, and Durango, Mexico,” concluded Pirondini. Prysmian Group’s Telecom business reported sales of EUR 1,164 million in 2016, with adjusted EBITDA climbing to EUR 163 million, posting an increase of +22.0 percent on 2015 and an improvement in margin to 14.0 percent from 12.1 percent in 2015. In the past weeks, the Group was awarded a USD 300 million optical cable supply agreement from Verizon Communications to support the company’s US network expansion around a next-generation fibre platform that will speed the deployment of 5G services.