BICCGENERAL ANNOUNCES COMPLETION OF SECOND PHASE OF THE ACQUISITION OF BICC CABLES AND THE ACQUISITION OF SPECTRAN'S INTEREST IN GENERAL PHOTONICS HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky., July 6 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ -- BICCGeneral (NYSE: BGC) announced today that it has completed the second phase of its acquisition of BICC plc'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 year- end. BICCGeneral also announced the purchase of SpecTran Corporation's joint venture interest in General Photonics. General Photonics, a manufacturer of optical fiber cables, was formed by General Cable Corporation and SpecTran in 1996. The General Photonics optical fiber cables business, now wholly owned by BICCGeneral, will be combined with the optical fiber cables business that BICCGeneral recently acquired from BICC plc. Taken together, BICCGeneral will be among the North American leaders in fiber optic cabling for local area data networks and specialty defense communications applications. The General Photonics product line will now be marketed and sold with BICCGeneral's complete line of data communications products, which includes both optical fiber cable and high-speed, enhanced copper Category cable products, further enhancing the Company's highly successful Power of One strategy. The General Cable brand name will be adopted for the former General Photonics product line. More information is available on BICCGeneral's web site at www.biccgeneral.com. SOURCE BICCGeneral CONTACT: Lisa B. Lawson, Vice President Corporate Communications of BICCGeneral, 606-572-8052 Web Site: http://www.biccgeneral.com