By Submarine Cable NewsFeed

Nexans has announced it has signed a draft

agreement with Polycab, the Indian leader in the cable industry, for the creation of a joint venture that will be majority-held by Nexans and managed in close

cooperation with its Indian partner.

This joint venture, to be headquartered in Mumbai, will initially cover the manufacture and marketing of cables for the

shipbuilding, material handling, railways and windpower industries as well as the marketing of cables manufactured by Nexans that were not part of Polycab's

portfolio. These activities are expected to generate sales of 50-60 million euros by 2011 and require some 25 million euros of investment.

Production can

later be extended to very high voltage terrestrial cables. The joint venture is expected to start industrial production during the first quarter of

2009.

Michel Lemaire, Executive Vice President for the Asia-Pacific area of Nexans, said, “We are excited to team up with such a high-quality partner as

Polycab for our first industrial venture on the Indian market. Polycab's leadership and strong commercial presence in India, to be complemented with Nexans'

technical expertise, especially in industrial and high voltage energy cables, are significant assets for the future of our emerging joint venture.”