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To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (9460)	1/26/2001 11:10:45 AM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14638

Furukawa May Sell 2% Stake of JDS This Year, President Says By Minoru Matsutani Tokyo, Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Furukawa Electric Co., the biggest shareholder of JDS Uniphase Corp., said it may sell more than 2 percent of the U.S. company's shares to raise cash to cut debt and buy companies with advanced optical network technology. Furukawa, which currently owns 12 percent of the world's biggest maker of parts used in fiber-optic equipment, ``may sell shares in the year ending March 2002,'' Furukawa's president Junnosuke Furukawa told Bloomberg news, without elaborating on how much it hopes to raise. Furukawa could sell more than $1 billion worth of JDS shares, based on the closing price of the U.S. company yesterday. That could help Furukawa pay down the 189.4 billion yen ($1.6 billion) in long-term debt it had as of last March. Japan's biggest maker of cables and other components used in optical communication equipment aims to take a bigger slice of the growing market of such components. Furukawa is betting that buying companies to obtain technology is the fastest way to boost sales. The Japanese company also said it may form an equity alliance by taking minority stakes in some big companies. Optical equipment sales in the U.S., the world's biggest market, will more than double to $45 billion in 2004 from $20.6 billion last year, according to market researcher RHK Inc. Fiber- optics cable networks transfer data faster than conventional copper phone lines, thus the increasing volume of Internet traffic creates demand for such equipment. In addition to JDS Uniphase, Furukawa Electric's customers for high-margin optical products such as pumping lasers include Corning Inc., Lucent Technologies Inc. and Nortel Networks Corp. JDS yesterday cut its third-quarter earnings forecast on lower capital spending by phone companies that use machines using the company's products, dropping the share price 12 percent to $55.19. Separately, Furukawa is considering buying back about 20 million shares of its own if share prices fall too much, the president said. Furukawa Electric shares fell 135 yen, or 5.6 percent, to 2,265, bringing their decline for the week to 14 percent. Access More Information and Services Above ©2001 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and Trademarks.