General Cable Reports Record Second Quarter Results

General Cable Corporation (NYSE:BGC) reported today revenues and
earnings for the second quarter. Revenues were $1,172.5 million
compared to $987.1 million in the prior year, an increase of 19%. Net
income applicable to common shareholders for the second quarter of
2007 was $62.8 million compared to $41.4 million in the second quarter
of 2006. Earnings per share for the second quarter of 2007 were $1.15,
an increase of 44% from second quarter of 2006.

Second Quarter Highlights

-- Improved adjusted operating income by 66%.

-- Increased year-over-year adjusted operating margins by 260
basis points, on a metal-adjusted basis.

-- Achieved record quarterly operating earnings in excess of $100
million.

-- Acquired global offshore cable supplier based in Germany.

-- Acquired a majority share of an energy cable business in
India.

Second Quarter Results

Net sales for the second quarter of 2007 were $1,172.5 million, an
increase of $171.5 million or 17% compared to the second quarter of
2006 on a metal-adjusted basis. Without the impact of acquisitions and
changes in foreign exchange rates, organic revenue growth was
approximately 8% in the second quarter of 2007 compared to 2006, on
the continuing strength of the company's global electrical
infrastructure and electric utility businesses. Revenues from recent
acquisitions contributed $55.9 million in the second quarter.

The average price per pound of copper in the second quarter was
$3.46, an increase of $0.76, or 28.2% from the first quarter of 2007,
and an increase of $0.09 or 2.7% from the second quarter of 2006. The
average price per pound of aluminum in the second quarter was $1.28, a
decrease of $0.02, or 1.6% from the first quarter of 2007, and an
increase of $0.02 or 1.6% from the second quarter of 2006.

As reported a year ago, during the second quarter of 2006 the
Company benefited from the forward purchase of a small portion of its
copper requirements due to concerns over supply tightness and the
timing of certain customer shipments. The Company estimated the
incremental operating profit realized in the second quarter of 2006
was about $8.5 million, or $0.10 per share. Without this impact,
operating earnings in the second quarter of 2006 were $61.9 million.
Second quarter 2007 operating income was $103.0 million compared to
adjusted operating income of $61.9 million in the second quarter of
2006, an increase of $41.1 million or 66%. Operating margin was 8.8%
in the second quarter of 2007, an increase of approximately 260 basis
points from the adjusted operating margin percentage of 6.2% in the
second quarter of 2006 on a metal-adjusted basis. "Electrical
infrastructure, networking and utility businesses in North America as
well as Silec in France and our operations in Portugal led the way in
margin improvement," said Gregory B. Kenny, President and Chief
Executive Officer of General Cable.

Also, during the second quarters of 2007 and 2006, the Company
reduced its state deferred tax asset valuation allowances, resulting
in a reduction in the quarterly effective tax rate and an increase in
reported earnings per share. The reduction in the state tax valuation
allowances is a result of the continued improvement in the financial
results of the United States based businesses over the past couple of
years.

Major Market Update

Net sales of the Company's global electric utility products were
up 21% on a metal-adjusted basis from the second quarter of 2006,
including approximately eight percentage points of growth related to
ECN which was acquired in the third quarter of 2006. Operating
earnings for the Company's global electric utility businesses
increased 83% to $46.1 million in the second quarter of 2007 versus
2006. As a percentage of metal-adjusted revenues, operating margins
grew about 350 basis points to 10.4% in the second quarter of 2007
compared to 2006. Continued strong demand for medium and high voltage
products in Europe helped offset weakening housing linked low voltage
and small gauge medium voltage cable demand in the United States
during the second quarter of 2007. Demand for utility cables in Europe
continues to be strong, particularly in France where EDF, one of the
Company's largest customers, is investing behind its announced EUR 40
billion upgrade program to its electricity grid and generating
capacity.

Net sales of the Company's global electrical infrastructure
products were up 22% on a metal-adjusted basis from the second quarter
of 2006, including approximately four points of growth related to the
addition of NSW which was acquired during the second quarter of 2007.
Operating earnings for the Company's electrical infrastructure
businesses increased 61%, to $33.0 million in the second quarter of
2007 versus 2006. As a percentage of metal-adjusted revenue, operating
margins grew about 200 basis points to 8.2% in the second quarter of
2007 compared to 2006. The increase in revenues and operating margin
for the Company's global electrical infrastructure businesses is
primarily a result of increasing end-market demand specifically for
mining, oil, gas, and petrochemical cable products around the world.
In addition, the Company continues to benefit from a strong stock
position of certain specialty products for the marine and transit
markets. "A slowing construction market in Spain resulted in some
weakness for low voltage products used in residential and
non-residential construction and lower metal pounds sold in the second
quarter of 2007 compared to 2006. While we expect this to continue in
the near term, we have seen other infrastructure markets help pick up
the slack," Kenny said.

Demand for high bandwidth networking cable continues to grow. Net
sales for networking cables were up 29% in the second quarter of 2007
compared to 2006, including 16 points from NSW's communication cable
activities. The organic growth is a result of healthy market demand,
increased market prices and a continuing mix shift toward higher end
networking products, including shielded and unshielded category 6 and
10-gigabit cables. Operating margin in the networking segment has
improved 270 basis points to 5.0% in the second quarter of 2007
compared to 2006. "I am encouraged by the rapid improvement in the
submarine fiber optic environment. Having spent time with the
management and associates of NSW this past quarter, I am confident in
their ability to return NSW to profitability more quickly than we
anticipated. I expect that this business will be accretive to earnings
in 2007 and accelerate materially in 2008 and beyond," Kenny said.

Preferred Stock Dividend

In accordance with the terms of the Company's 5.75% Series A
Convertible Redeemable Preferred Stock, the Board of Directors has
declared a regular quarterly preferred stock dividend of approximately
$0.72 per share. The dividend is payable on August 24, 2007 to
preferred stockholders of record as of the close of business on July
31, 2007. The Company expects the quarterly dividend payment to
approximate $0.1 million

Income Taxes

In the second quarter of 2007, the Company reduced certain state
deferred tax asset valuation allowances established in prior years.
This resulted in a reduction in the second quarter income tax
provision of $4.3 million and an effective tax rate of 33.6% for the
quarter.

Convertible Notes

The Company's share price was up 42% in the second quarter, 73%
year to date, and averaged $64.35 during the second quarter. Under the
treasury stock method of accounting for the impact of the $355
million, 0.875% convertible notes, the Company has added approximately
1.6 million shares to the Company's share count for purposes of
calculating fully diluted earnings per share for the second quarter of
2007. The incremental effective shares reduced reported earnings per
share by approximately $0.03 in the second quarter of 2007. Because of
the sustained increase in the Company's share price during the
quarter, the convertible notes became convertible at the option of the
holder, and therefore, the notes have been reclassified on the balance
sheet from long-term to short-term debt.

Third Quarter 2007 Outlook

"The weaker housing market in Spain, Oceania, and the United
States continues to be offset by strong infrastructure project demand
and opportunities in new markets, underscoring the importance of the
Company's product and geographic diversification over the last several
years. In North America, a couple of large transmission projects have
been pushed out from the middle of 2007 until the first half of 2008.
To give you a sense of size and scale, the total transmission cable
required for just one of these projects would represent a significant
percentage of the Company's annual transmission cable manufacturing
capacity. Given the nature of these and other large scale projects, I
expect timing volatility for both overhead and underground high
voltage transmission systems as well as submarine projects will
continue to make short term forecasting a bit more difficult. Versus
the second quarter, the Company will fully absorb facility vacation
shutdowns and maintenance typically scheduled for the July and August
timeframe as well as the normal seasonality of many of our markets.
Therefore, for the third quarter of 2007, we expect to report revenues
of approximately $1.1 billion and earnings per share in the range of
$0.85 to $0.90, again up nicely from the prior year," Kenny said. For
the third quarter, the Company has estimated 56.2 million fully
diluted shares for purposes of calculating earnings per share. This
represents about $0.05 dilution from the share count at the end of the
first quarter of 2007.

General Cable will discuss second quarter results on a conference
call and webcast at 8:30 a.m. ET tomorrow, August 1, 2007. For more
information please see our website at www.generalcable.com.

With $4 billion of revenues and 9,000 employees, General Cable
(NYSE:BGC) is a global leader in the development, design, manufacture,
marketing and distribution of copper, aluminum and fiber optic wire
and cable products for the energy, industrial, and communications
markets. Visit our website at www.generalcable.com.

Certain statements in this press release, including without
limitation, statements regarding future financial results and
performance, plans and objectives, capital expenditures and the
Company's or management's beliefs, expectations or opinions, are
forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from
those statements as a result of factors, risks and uncertainties over
which the Company has no control. Such factors include the economic
strength and competitive nature of the geographic markets that the
Company serves; economic, political and other risks of maintaining
facilities and selling products in foreign countries; changes in
industry standards and regulatory requirements; advancing
technologies, such as fiber optic and wireless technologies;
volatility in the price of copper and other raw materials, as well as
fuel and energy and the Company's ability to reflect such volatility
in its selling prices; interruption of supplies from the Company's key
suppliers; the failure to negotiate extensions of the Company's labor
agreements on acceptable terms; the Company's ability to increase
manufacturing capacity and achieve productivity improvements; the
Company's dependence upon distributors and retailers for non-exclusive
sales of certain of the Company's products; pricing pressures in the
Company's end markets; the Company's ability to maintain the
uncommitted accounts payable or accounts receivable financing
arrangements in its European operations; the impact of any additional
charges in connection with plant closures and the Company's inventory
accounting practices; the impact of certain asbestos litigation,
unexpected judgments or settlements and environmental liabilities; the
ability to successfully identify, finance and integrate acquisitions;
the impact of terrorist attacks or acts of war which may affect the
markets in which the Company operates; the Company's ability to retain
key employees; the Company's ability to service debt requirements and
maintain adequate domestic and international credit facilities and
credit lines; the impact on the Company's operating results of its
pension accounting practices; volatility in the market price of the
Company's common stock all of which are more fully discussed in the
Company's Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission on March 1, 2007, as well as periodic reports filed with
the Commission.