The last acquisition by Prysmian, the world’s largest cable manufacturer, was its largest ever: a $3 billion deal for U.S.-based General Cable that was completed in 2018. Per a report in Reuters, the company may make another deal in the year or two.

The Reuters story said that during an analyst call, Chief Executive Valerio Battista said that “until recently M&A ‘was a suicide’ due to sky-high valuations.” That situation is changing, and Prysmian has a healthy balance sheet that allows it to pursue opportunities. “Frankly speaking, I believe that in the next 12-24 months ... some of our competitors may come to the door,” he said.

No potential acquisitions were cited in the article, which noted that Prysmian expects a cash flow of between €550-650 million this year, topping prior guidance.

The Prysmian Group has received the notification from SSEN Transmission and National Grid Electricity Transmission plc, the GB electricity transmission network owners, selecting them as the exclusive preferred bidder for the Eastern Green Link 2 (EGL2) cable connection.

A press release said that the Prysmian Group continues the contract negotiations with the aim of concluding the contract in a timely manner. Eastern Green Link 2 is a planned high voltage direct current (HVDC) submarine and underground cable link of around 500 km route length between Peterhead in Scotland and Drax in the North of England. With a power transmission capacity of 2 GW, it is expected to be one of the first cable systems in the U.K. to utilize 525 kV technology with extruded XLPE insulation.

EGL2 forms part of a series of planned system reinforcements required to increase the capability of the existing U.K. transmission network and facilitate renewable generation in the North to demand centers to the South, supporting the target of enabling 50 GW offshore wind generation by 2030 and achieving a Net Zero economy by 2050, the release said.

SSEN Transmission, operating under license held by Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission plc, owns, operates and develops the high-voltage electricity transmission system in the north of Scotland and remote islands. Its network includes 132 kV, 220 kV, 275 kV and 400 kV electricity transmission.

The Prysmian Group announced that it has been selected as one of the preferred bidders for the Biscay Gulf interconnection project by INELFE, a joint venture between the Spanish grid operator, Red Eléctrica, and the French grid operator Réseau de Transport d’Électricité (RTE).

A press release said that Biscay Gulf will be the first fundamentally submarine interconnection between Spain (Gatika) and France (Cubnezais). It will have two high-voltage direct current (HVDC) links, each with a capacity of 1000 MW, and almost 800 km of HVDC submarine and land cables. The two links will increase in

2 GW the exchange capacity, improving the safety, stability and quality of electricity supply between the two countries and also with the rest of Europe.
Prysmian Group continues contract negotiations, with expectations of finalizing the contract in a few months.

The Prysmian Group reports that it has been chosen by National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) to help the upgrading process of the U.K.’s electricity grid.

A press release said that Prysmian has been awarded a medium-voltage cable framework agreement with NGED, the U.K.’s largest electricity distribution network, that is for a minimum of three years. The deal was reached through Prysmian’s U.K. subsidiary.

Prysmian will supply medium-voltage cables primarily made at the Group’s Wrexham plant in North Wales. The cable will enable NGED Grid to expand and modernize the network. Prysmian and NGED have built a strategic relationship over many years across all voltage levels for supply into the U.K. market. Such projects include the North Sea Link, the world’s longest submarine electricity interconnector, enabling the sharing of renewable energy between the U.K. and Norway; the Viking Link, the first submarine cable connection between the U.K. and Denmark; IFA2, the turn-key design, manufacture and installation of a submarine and land power cable link to connect Tourbe in France to Chilling in Hampshire, U.K.; and the Western HVDC Link, a new submarine High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) interconnector between Scotland and England.

Hellenic Cables receives a 2nd contract to replace existing cable lines in Adriatic Sea

Hellenic Cables has signed a second contract with Croatia’s Končar Group to supply it approximately 30 km of 110 kV high-voltage submarine cables to replace outdated cable lines in the Adriatic Sea.

A press release said that Hellenic Cables will start production of the cable this year at its production facility in Corinth, Greece, and is expected to finish early in 2024. The company will also provide accessories and related services as part of the project for Končar Engineering Ltd., a regional supplier of engineering solutions, power transmission and distribution, rail vehicles and infrastructure.

The order marks repeat business. A prior order, in 2021, completed in 2022, saw the delivery of 12 km of 110 kV submarine cables, accessories and related services. “For the second time, we have chosen Hellenic Cables as a partner in a strategic project in Croatia which will connect Croatian islands Hvar, Korčula, Cres and Lošinj with new 110 kV HV cables,” said Gordan Planinić, MOB of Končar Engineering Ltd. “This enables, above all, to maintain the security of supply of customers on the Adriatic islands as well as a significant environmental contribution to the preservation of the cleanliness of the Adriatic Sea.”

The Prysmian Group announced that it has seen its “B” rating improve to an “A-” in terms of its CDP (carbon disclosure project) ranking for a covered period (2021 versus 2019) the company saw its Scope 1 & 2 emissions decrease by more than 22%.

A press release said that the improvements cited in its score for the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) stemmed from reduced consumption, electrification and the use of renewable energy. In 2021, Prysmian recorded a 3% reduction despite the acquisition of four new production sites through focused actions (e.g., LED lights, biomass boilers and replacement of old machinery versus more efficient ones). It also installed several solar farms in its factories and aims to expand the amount of self-generated energy with renewables significantly in the coming years.

“Climate is the most urgent pillar of sustainability and we must deliver results quickly in order to guarantee a better future for next generations,” said Maria Cristina Bifulco, who is the chief sustainability officer and investor relations vice president for the Prysmian Group. “The A- ranking in the CDP Questionnaire confirms that we are on the right path in the decarbonization process and that our commitments are solid and recognized. The recent confirmation of Prysmian in the DJ World Index and the excellent results achieved further confirms how sustainability represents a key priority for the group.”

In 2021, the Prysmian Group launched its Climate Change and Social Ambition in 2021, which aims “to make the Group one of the leading technological players in the transition to low carbon energy and decarbonize its operation by 2035 (Scope 1 and 2) and be net-zero across the whole value chain by 2050 (Scope 3).”

In related news, Prysmian Australia has been awarded NBN’s ‘Protected Environment’ Award for 2022. Prysmian has had a longstanding partnership with NBN Co., locally manufacturing and supplying the optical ribbon cable integral to NBN’s national network as well as being its exclusive supplier of copper cable. All NBN cables are manufactured in Prysmian’s Dee Why, Sydney plant.

Prysmian’s ability to innovate saw the optimization of the 12-fiber stranded feeder cable to NBN. The local team worked closely with NBN’s engineering design team to challenge the existing cable design and develop a smaller and lighter cable without compromise to the mechanical, environmental and optical performance. After several iterations of prototyping and testing, the final design was a reduction in weight of 21% (which is mostly plastic material), a 27% reduction in size and a doubling of cable length on the existing size drum, with no change to the cable performance characteristics or handling methods.

In 12 months, there were significant benefits to material usage and carbon emissions, namely, it reduced: use of plastics by 129 metric tons; use of timber by 87 metric tons (1400 wooden drums) due to ability to supply longer lengths of cable on the same drum; carbon emissions by 1,175 metric tons; and emissions from logistics as 1400+ drums were taken off the road.

“We are delighted that our long-term strategy to manufacture locally, with a commitment to innovation and sustainability, continues to be of significant value to our customers” said Prysmian Oceania CEO Hama Shroff.

Italy's Prysmian has won a €60 million contract for laying submarine cables as part of the strategic HVDC transmission system for the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC (TAQA) Lightning Project in the UAE.

A press release said that Prysmian secured a deal for the supply of power cables worth around €220 million in January. The contract was awarded under a limited notice to proceed by Samsung C&T as part of its EPC consortium with Jan De Nul, with an option open for an installation agreement. The project is set for completion in 2025.

ADNOC and TAQA announced the successful financial closure of their $3.8bn project to power and significantly decarbonize ADNOC’s offshore production operations in September. The main purpose of the new HVDC link is to replace ADNOC’s current offshore power with a renewable onshore power source, reducing its environmental impact and CO2 emissions.

Under the ADNOC Lightning Project, Prysmian will design, supply, assemble and test a symmetrical monopole system consisting of four HVDC 320 kV single-core cables with XLPE insulation, along with fiber optic cable systems, that will connect the Al Mirfa onshore converter station to Al Ghallan, an artificial offshore island in the Arabian Gulf, located off the Abu Dhabi coast.

The project comprises both a subsea route of approximately 134 km of submarine HVDC cables, and onshore routes located at Al Mirfa and Al Ghallan Island, totaling approximately 3.5 km of HVDC land cable route. Offshore installation operations will be performed by Prysmian’s Leonardo da Vinci, with the shallow water activities being performed by the cable-laying barge Ulisse.

The Prysmian Group announced that it has reached a key technology milestone in power transmission: the successful development and testing of the first 525 kV extruded submarine full cable system for High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) applications.
The breakthrough will enable a massive increase of the maximum transmission capacity of bi-pole systems up to more than 2.5 GW, which is more than double the value achieved with 320 kV DC systems currently in service. The one-year prequalification testing was carried out per international standards including CIGRE TB-496 and witnessed by a third-party certification body.
“This new milestone confirms our commitment and prominent role in the development of power grids infrastructure, key for the energy transition,” said Prysmian Group CEO Valerio Battista.
HVDC cable links are key components of sustainable energy systems, to transmit large bulks of electricity over long distances, often across or between countries. This achievement will put Prysmian Group in a unique position to support forthcoming tenders for submarine interconnectors.
“On the heels of the successful industrialization of 525 kV HVDC underground cables for the 3 German HVDC links projects, we are ready to extend this innovative technology for submarine cable systems to enable our customers in the continuous effort towards the energy transition by further reducing the costs of offshore wind and minimizing the environmental impact,” said Hakan Ozmen, EVP Projects Business Unit.
The company leveraged its in-depth knowledge of materials and the capability to improve manufacturing processes to optimize a reliable industrial process with strict technological parameters and providing an entire system of cable and accessories. That includes flexible factory joints, rigid repair joints and sea-land joints with the best dielectric properties.

6/2/2022 -

The Prysmian Group will partner with Telstra, Australia’s largest telecom company, to build a new intercapital dual fiber path network in the country, a project that will require up to 20,000 km of optical fiber terrestrial cable.

A press release said that the national fiber network project, a multi-year project, will see Telstra build a new “state-of-the-art inter-city dual fiber path” to boost inter-capital capacity, as well as capacity for regional areas.

Prysmian and Telstra InfraCo undertook the development of a leading-edge optical cable system, leveraging Prysmian’s local R&D Lab. The Group invested to develop the next generation of high-strength, low-loss optical cable that has a highly ruggedized design, made for direct ploughing enabling long-distance deployment in harsh local conditions. The state-of-the-art cable design is combined with Prysmian’s BendBright^® G.657.A2 Low Loss fiber technology. The cable has been developed to Australia’s unique environmental conditions and will be designed and manufactured locally at Prysmian’s factory on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

Prysmian will support this project through local production of the optical cables in Dee Why, Sydney, which will boost jobs and investment in local high-tech manufacturing. The Group is investing to upgrade the plant’s capacity and capability. The deployment includes up to 20,000 kms of dual high strength optical cables combined with upgrade of the network within the Metro cities.

 “There is an ever-growing demand for greater fiber capacity, enabling massive bandwidth and ultrafast data rates with lower latency,” said Philippe Vanhille, executive vice president of the Telecom Division at Prysmian Group.