SpecTran Sells Interest in General Photonics

Optical component manufacturer SpecTran Corp. (Sturbridge, MA) has sold its interest in its joint venture with General Cable Corp. (Altoona, PA), General Photonics, to Spain's BICC General Cable Industries Inc. for $2.37 million. SpecTran and General Cable founded General Photonics, which mannufactures optical fiber cables, in 1996. As part of the transaction, General Photonics repaid a $325,000 loan to SpecTran and BICC General Cable purchased about 30,000 km of optical fiber from SpecTran's Communication Fiber Technologies subsidiary.

BICCGeneral also has completed the second phase of its acquisition of BICC's worldwide energy cable and cable systems businesses, which included ownership interests in businesses in Fiji, the Iberian Peninsula, Mozambique, Angola, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. The company expects to complete the third and final phase of the acquisition, which includes the remaining BICC Cables joint venture businesses in Germany and the Middle East, by the end of the year.