General Cable Corporation (NYSE:BGC) announced today that its
French subsidiary, Silec Cable, has been awarded a $70 million
underground high-voltage project, which is part of a $1.3 billion
Middletown-Norwalk, Connecticut electric transmission project. This
joint project led by Northeast Utilities Services Company and The
United Illuminating Company is expected to be completed in 2009. The
high-voltage underground portion of the project consists of
approximately 69 miles of a new 345kV synthetic insulated cable system
including 225 pre-molded joints. The cables will contain embedded
optical fibers for temperature monitoring of the links. The Silec
Cable portion of the project includes cables and jointing components,
as well as a complete set of services, including engineering,
installation supervision, and on-site jointing.
This award follows the recent successful completion and
commissioning of a 14.4-mile 345kV synthetic insulated cable system
supplied by Silec Cable as part of the Bethel-Norwalk, Connecticut
transmission project, which is the longest installation to date in the
United States. The high-voltage synthetic insulated cable technology,
pioneered by Silec Cable, which was acquired by General Cable in
December 2005, has been installed worldwide up to 500kV. This
technology represents a significant improvement over the pipe-type
High Pressure, Fluid Filled (HPFF) techniques used in the United
States in terms of cost efficiency, ease of installation and
maintenance, and environmental concerns.
"We are proud to have successfully partnered with Northeast
Utilities for the Bethel-Norwalk project and to be chosen by both
Northeast Utilities and The United Illuminating Company for the
larger-scale Middletown-Norwalk project," said Bernard Ernot,
President of Silec Cable. "These projects set the stage for a broader
use of synthetic insulated cable systems by United States utility
companies for the upgrade and expansion of their high-voltage energy
transmission networks to reliably meet the growing demand of their
customers."
With over $3.5 billion of annualized revenues and 7,700 employees,
General Cable 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 are more fully
discussed in the Company's Registration Statement on Form S-3 (File
No. 333-138511) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the
"Commission") on November 8, 2006, and its amended Annual Report on
Form 10-K/A for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2005, as filed with
the Commission on November 8, 2006, as well as in its periodic reports
filed with the Commission.
