Prysmian Completes Xtera Acquisition

Publication Staff, Prysmian
October 13, 2026

Prysmian has completed its acquisition of Xtera Topco, a submarine telecommunications systems specialist based in the United Kingdom and United States. The purchase was made through a joint venture in which Prysmian holds an 80% stake and Fincantieri owns the remaining 20%. Announced in December 2025, the transaction carries an enterprise value of $65 million. It brings Xtera’s repeater technology and systems expertise together with Prysmian’s submarine cable production and installation capabilities, broadening the combined company’s role in subsea network projects.

The closing coincides with Xtera’s selection by EXA Infrastructure for EXA Meridian, a planned 6,552 km cable between New Jersey and Brean in the United Kingdom. Xtera is to provide optical engineering and the system’s wet and dry plant. The design specifies 24 fiber pairs and more than 500 Tbps of scalable capacity, with service targeted for 2029. Prysmian will manufacture the cable at its Nordenham, Germany, facility, where it is doubling submarine telecom production capacity and seeking as many as 300 additional employees.

The acquisition gives Prysmian access to Xtera’s work on regional and long-haul systems, including its proprietary repeaters, optical engineering and system integration. Xtera’s solutions have been deployed in more than 60 countries, according to the announcement. Combined with Prysmian’s manufacturing, installation, monitoring and maintenance resources, those capabilities create an offer spanning more stages of a subsea project. The strategic move comes amid rising demand associated with artificial intelligence, cloud computing and data-center growth, while customers are also prioritizing network capacity, resilience and security.

Prysmian describes the completed deal as a step in expanding its submarine telecom business and says the integrated capabilities will support competition for major international projects. The immediate commercial reference point is EXA Meridian, whose cable production is assigned to Nordenham and whose entry into service is planned for 2029. The company is expanding the German site to meet anticipated market demand. Prysmian has also said it is exploring the possible addition of a dedicated submarine telecom cable-laying vessel, but presented that as an option under consideration rather than a confirmed investment.

View source