Prysmian S.p.A. is an Italian company with headquarters in Milan, specialising in the production of electrical cable for use in the energy and telecom sectors and for optical fibres. Prysmian is present in North America with 23 plants, 48 in Europe, 13 in LATAM, 7 MEAT, 13 APAC. It is the world leader in the production of cables for wind farms. The company is listed on the Milan Stock Exchange in the FTSE MIB index. On 4 December 2017, it took over 100% of the General Cable group in the US, to then complete the merger by incorporation the following year, after the antitrust approval by the respective countries. History 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. In 1925, it produced 5,150 km of submarine telegraph cabling for Italcable for communications between Italy and South America. Its collaboration with the Italian government continued with the laying of cables for the Italian interurban telephone network. Prysmian In 2005, Prysmian S.r.l. was created by Goldman Sachs after acquiring Pirelli & C. S.p.A's Cables and Systems business. After restructuring the organisation of the group's internal activities, the company decided to sell down its investment in the cable market. The figure negotiated was EUR 1.3 billion: Goldman Sachs gave Pirelli 225 million and the rest (more than one billion) was a debt that would be paid off the back of the new business. 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