LS Cable & System, the Korean-based parent company of Superior Essex, is planning to spin off that company as well as other interests. Recently LS Cable & System announced that its president and chief executive officer Jaeun Koo “called a board meeting on [October] 21 during which it was decided to separate the overseas investment division of Cyrpus, a U.S. subsidiary, and its domestic real estate development division. The two units will be combined to form a new company tentatively named LS I&D. … LS I&D will focus its management capacities on improving corporate value by accelerating the performance and structural improvement of Superior Essex Inc, a subsidiary that LS Cable and System acquired in 2008 …”
The announcement from LS Cable & System also stated that through the move it “plans to improve its global competitiveness by focusing only on the company’s core businesses, namely submarine and extra high-voltage cables. In addition LS Cable & System anticipates that the spinoff will strengthen the company’s investment capabilities for future growth while improving its financial soundness and profitability by reducing its debt ratio.”
Addressing the financial climate, the company added, “In the U.S. the demand for winding wire, communication cables and power cables—the core businesses of Superior Essex—is expected to improve due to the increased demand for big data communications networks and the automotive industry recovery.” It concluded, “The key to this spinoff is to create a business structure for LS Cable & System with which we can break through the difficult situations the cable industry is facing at the moment, and also for each subsidiary to focus on their fields of expertise.”