The beginning The company originated in 1879 as Pirelli Cavi e Sistemi. In 1881, it secured a contract to produce submarine telegraph cables for
military engineering. In 1886, it opened a submarine cable production plant in
La Spezia. It later helped to lay the entire Italian
telegraph network on behalf of the Italian
state-owned company Telegrafi dello Stato, and to install the
electrical grid for domestic use in
Milan. It also laid telegraph cables in the colonies of
Italian East Africa. The company, led by Valerio Battista from 2005, was then a public company. Since 3 May 2007, it has been listed on the
Milan Stock Exchange and on 24 September 2007 it joined the
S&P MIB index of the biggest Italian companies. At the end of 2009, Goldman Sachs decided to sell down its stake, which was completed in March 2010. In February 2011, Prysmian successfully made a takeover bid of EUR 840 million for Dutch company Draka, with headquarters in Eindhoven, which at the time was fourth in the world in the cable and optical fibre sector. In December 2017, it bought the American (and rival) company
General Cable based in
Kentucky. A transaction of almost three billion dollars, consisting of equity (1.5 billion) and financial debt. This merged the leading cable-making company in the world in terms of revenue (Prysmian) and the fourth (General Cable), creating a group with a revenue of EUR 10 billion, EBIDTA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) of EUR 840 million and over 28,000 employees.
Acquisition of General Cable The General Cable group was valued at 3 billion dollars with a price premium of approximately 81% to General Cable's share value on the last day of trading. The acquisition was unanimously approved by the two
Boards of Directors and would create a company present in 50 countries with 31,000 employees, which could generate revenue of 11 billion dollars a year, based on estimates from the 2017 financial statements. The integration was expected to cost 220 million dollars. The price per share paid to General Cable was 30 dollars, versus a Prysmian dividend that was halved in 2011 after the acquisition of Draka, and stable at 43 cents per share. The General Cable group has one billion dollars of debt. The transaction was subject to approval by the antitrust authorities of the two countries. Its completion would create a
market concentration in a strategic sector for public safety and economic development, which was already established by no more than ten competitors across Italy, the US and China. Other
oligopolies exist in the fixed and mobile telephony sectors in various countries, partly due to the existence of
natural monopolies.
Activity Leonardo Da Vinci moored off
Saltburn The company is the global leader in the cable systems sector. Specifically, Prysmian produces and lays underground and submarine cables for the
transmission and
distribution of electricity, as well as specialised cables for use in various industrial contexts, and medium- and low-voltage cables for construction and infrastructure. For telecoms, the Group produces copper cables, optical cables and
optical fibre cables for the transmission of data, video and sound. On the customer's request, Prysmian also Designs and
produces key systems and takes care of post-installation
maintenance. Every year, Prysmian invests more than EUR 100 million in research and development. This has allowed the Group to develop innovations like BendBrightXS 180μm, the narrowest bend-insensitive optical fibre, and FlexRibbon, which, with 6,912 fibres, is the optical cable with the highest number of fibres in the sector. The company also developed the P-Laser technology for cabling systems, which combines greater transmission capacity and eco-sustainability, using 100% recyclable materials and cutting carbon emissions by 40%. By 2022, Prysmian has planned to invest around EUR 450 million to net-zero the Group's CO2 emissions and improve the sustainability of its supply chain. An ambitious commitment, aligned with the objectives of the
Paris Agreement, which would be executed with support from the non-profit organisation
Carbon Trust. For 2021, Prysmian confirmed the launch of the new Leonardo da Vinci cable-laying vessel, which will be the longest in the world at 171 metres. In Italy, Prysmian is active in
Merlino,
Giovinazzo,
Pignataro Maggiore,
Quattordio,
Livorno,
Pozzuoli and
Battipaglia. Since the acquisition of General Cable, it is present in more than 50 countries with 104 facilities and over 28,000 employees. == Shareholders ==