NKT A/S

NKT A/S (formerly NKT Holding A/S) is an industrial holding company with interests in power cables and wires as well as optical components, lasers and crystal fibres.

NKT A/S
TypePublicly traded Aktieselskab
Nasdaq Copenhagen: NKT
IndustryPower cables and photonics
Founded1891
FounderH.P. Prior
Headquarters,
Denmark
Key people
Roland M. Andersen (Interim CEO & CFO), Jens Due Olsen (Chairman)
ProductsPower cables, optical fibres
RevenueEUR 1,501 million (2018)[1]
Number of employees
app. 3700 (end 2018)
SubsidiariesNKT, NKT Photonics
WebsiteNKT.com

The company is listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen Copenhagen Stock Exchange and has been so since 1898. In 1991, the company was restructured as a holding company focusing on the core business with international potential.

The company employs app. 3700 worldwide with production facilities in 10 European countries.

NKT A/S operates in two main business areas:

  • NKT - power and energy cables
  • NKT Photonics - optical lasers, crystal fibres and fiber-optic sensing solutions

History

The company was founded in 1891 by H.P Prior, who would later become chairman of the Danish industry council, under the name of "Nordisk Elektrisk Ledningstraad og Kabel-Fabrik". It quickly expanded, buying up other companies, and in 1898 was named "Nordiske Kabel og Traadfabriker".

Over the next more than 90 years the company is active in a number of sectors outside the cable industry, including glass, aluminium, steel, nails, fasteners etc. primarily for the Danish market.

In 1990 the current company structure is established and over the next 10 years, begins merging and selling of several companies in the portfolio with the aim to concentrate on a smaller number of core businesses with major international potential. The past decade, the company has continued that path, founded by the "best owner" philosophy, where NKT Holding provides a kind of industrial home for each entity until such time as the may be ready for further development and growth under "better" ownership. This way, NKT Holding sold the electricity distribution manufacturer Lauritz Knudsen to Schneider in 1999, the semi-conductor manufacturer GIGA to Intel in 2000 and the underwater pipe manufacturer NKT Flexibles in November 2012.

In September 2016, the NKT Board of Directors announced the intent to split NKT Holding A/S into two separately listed companies, NKT (incl. NKT Photonics) and Nilfisk, as a consequence of the acquisition of ABB HV Cables business. The split took place October 12, 2017.

Business areas

NKT A/S is divided into two main business areas: Cables and wires under the brand NKT and photonics under NKT Photonics.

NKT

NKT (formerly nkt cables) produces cables and supplies the energy sector. NKT is operation with dual headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark and Cologne, Germany, and its markets are predominantly Europe. The company's strategic focus is electricity infrastructure for offshore wind farms and onshore power plants. The other main areas are cables utilities, for construction and wire systems and signalling cables for railways.

NKT was founded by Dane Hans Peter Prior in 1891 and became a listed company in the Copenhagen Stock Exchange in 1898. During the next 90 years the company became one of the largest industrial companies in Denmark, focusing on cable manufacturing as well as electricity, telecommunications and metal products for the Danish market. When the company structure was changed in 1991, NKT continued as a business area within the NKT Group.

In the 1960s, NKT started recycling scrap from cable production in its facility in Stenlille, Denmark. The Company introduced lead-free cables and halogen and PVC-free cables as part of a renewed environmental focus in the 1990s.

In 1999 NKT acquired German cable manufacturer Felten & Guilleaume, doubling the production capacity and adding businesses in the Czech Republic, China and Austria. NKT headquarters subsequently moved to Cologne. In 2013 NKT acquired Swedish cable manufacturer Ericsson Cables in Falun, Sweden.

In 2017, NKT acquired Swedish-Swiss High-Voltage Cable Manufacturer, ABB HV Cables from the ABB Group including the high-voltage plant in Karlskrona and the cable-laying vessel NKT Victoria along with offices in Karlskrona, Alingsas and part of the offices in Malmo, Rotterdam and Mannheim.[2]

NKT Photonics

NKT Photonics is working with a series of technologically sophisticated products and solutions within the optical fiber technology. The main focus of the subsidiary is Imaging & Metrology, Sensing & Energy and Material Processing.

NKT Photonics is headquartered in Birkerød, Denmark and is a spin-off of current and former NKT subsidiaries and a result of NKT involvement in optical communications starting in the 1980s. Today, NKT Photonics sell R&D to the industrial market collaboration with for example Leica and Horiba Scientific on fiber laser technology.

International operations

NKT A/S is present all over the world with sales offices and has production facilities in Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Switzerland and England.

Members of the Board of Directors of NKT A/S

  • Jens Due Olsen, Chairman of the Board of Directors
  • René Svendsen-Tune, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors
  • Jens Maaløe
  • Jutta af Rosenborg
  • Lars Sandahl Sørensen
  • Andreas Nauen

See updated list at NKT.com

References

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