B3 Cable Solutions has announced that they have signed an agreement to purchase Indian based telecom cable manufacturing business UM Cables Ltd from Usha Martin Ltd., a company listed on the Indian stock exchange.   The deal is expected to complete by the 31st January 2008, subject to due diligence and the necessary approvals.

UM Cables Ltd is one of India’s leading manufacturers of Optical Fibre and Copper telecom Cables employing 140 people and with a turnover of $60M.  UM Cables Ltd services high profile telecommunications clients across India, The Middle East, Africa and Europe. This acquisition will help B3 to strategically position itself in the resurgent Optical Fibre Cable business and also in the fast growing Asian region.

UM Cables Ltd operates sophisticated copper and fibre cable manufacturing facilities in Silvassa which are ISO 9001 and ISO14001 accredited.   Manufacturing capacity currently stands at 1.2M pair KM per annum for copper cable and 700,000 fibre KM per annum.   The company also has offices in Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Delhi.

Steve Ellis, Managing Director at B3 explained, “This is an important acquisition for B3 Cable Solutions and our second in 12 months.  This acquisition will grow our production capacity in our core marketplace and provide us with a fast track route into exciting markets around the world.  We are delighted to have reached agreement with the management of Usha Martin, and are looking forward to welcoming the team at UM Cables Ltd into the B3 Group.“

Dr. P Bhattacharya, Jt. MD of Usha Martin said “Usha Martin has been a successful player in Telecom Cable business for over 15 years. The U M Cable operation has the required Quality, Efficiency, Competitiveness and Asset Quality to move to still higher levels of performance through expansion and product development. The ownership change to a leading Cable Company of International repute will help focus on achieving this objective. Usha Martin proposes to concentrate on its core and global business of speciality steel and wire rope”.