■ Acquired the power cable plant of SPSX in the US, a group affiliate          
■ Secures foothold for the power business in the US; expecting to benefit from increased investments in infrastructure
 
Anyang, Mar. 30, 2017 - LS Cable & System (President & CEO Roe-Hyun Myung) announced that it would acquire the North Carolina power cable plant from Superior Essex (SPSX), a group affiliate in the US.
 
LS Cable & System will invest $24.6 million (about KRW27.4 billion) to establish a production subsidiary (LS Cable & System U.S.A) in Taboro, North Carolina.
 
SPSX is the global No. 1 in winding wire products, and No. 1 in communication cables in North America. It has 17 plants in seven countries including the US, Germany and Italy. The company’s headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Sales for 2016 amounted to $1.74 billion (about KRW 2 trillion).  
 
SPSX entered the power cable business in 2012, and completed construction of a power cable plant near its cable plant in Taboro. The plant mostly produces medium-voltage (MV) and low-voltage (LV) cables for houses, buildings and plants, and reported about $52 million (about KRW 5.8 million) in sales last year. This figure accounts for about 1% of the US MV and LV cable market.
 
LS Cable & System is planning to increase the sales of this plant more than four times by 2021 to about $200 million (about KRW 22.2 million). To this end, it will make inroads into the western states while expanding in the east of the US where it is already established.
 
“As SPSX does not have much experience in the power cable business, we thought it will be more efficient if LS Cable & System acquired and operated it,” said Roe-Hyun Myung, President and CEO of LS Cable & System. “Also, LS Cable & System can expect to prepare against the protectionist sentiment of the new Trump administration and benefit from the increased investments in the infrastructure by securing a foothold in the US power business.”
 
LS Cable & System exported extra-high-voltage cables to the US for the first time in 2006, and supplied its products to the Colorado Power Authority, the New Jersey Power Authority and so on. It is No. 1 in the 345kV plus premium power cable market in the US.  
 
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SPSX was founded in 1930 on the site of Ford Motor in Detroit, and supplied winding wires for automobiles. Afterwards, it became the largest cablemaker in North America through M&A with winding wire and communication cable companies, and was listed on the New York stock exchange in 1965.
 
LS Cable & System acquired SPSX in 2008 for about $900 million (about KRW 1 trillion) which helped it rise from No. 7 to No. 3 in the global cable industry. Afterwards, in January 2014, the real estate business was spun off from SPSX and became LS I&D. Currently SPSX is a subsidiary of LS. (LS - LS I&D - Cyprus - SPSX)
 
Winding wire (magnet wire) is a copper or aluminum wire coated with an insulating material. It is wound inside electronic devices like coils where it is used to convert electric energy. It is an essential part in all devices that consume electricity, such as transformers, generators, automotive parts, various home appliances and motors.