KEI Industries is India’s third-largest wire-and-cable maker, but its real story is a deliberate climb up the technology ladder - from basic house wiring to 400 kV Extra High Voltage (EHV) cables that only a handful of companies worldwide can produce. It started in 1968 as a small partnership making control and telecom cables, then transformed itself through a 2010 technical tie-up with Switzerland’s Brugg Kabel AG, which unlocked the EHV segment and turned a domestic manufacturer into an exporter to over 60 countries. The recurring pattern is visible across its history: use partnerships to acquire hard-to-replicate technology, integrate backward to control quality and cost, and then shift the sales mix toward higher-margin channels - most recently by growing retail sales from under a third to over half the business while deliberately shrinking the low-return EPC division.
Business segments
Three engines, ordered by what the business stands on - a cables powerhouse that is the group, a niche stainless-steel wire export business, and a deliberately shrinking project division that exists mainly to pull cables through.
1. Wires and cables: the group’s foundation and growth engine
A full-spectrum manufacturer selling everything from house wire to 400 kV EHV cable across retail, institutional and export channels - with pre-qualification barriers that keep competitors years away.
- One-stop shop across every voltage - the portfolio runs from Low Tension (LT) to Extra High Voltage at 400 kV, including specialized cables for solar plants, data centers, ships, oilfields, and EV chargers, so a customer building a power network can source every cable from one supplier.
- Retail is the margin engine - the B2C channel sells house wires and LT/HT cables through a pan-India dealer network and now contributes roughly 54% of overall sales, offering better margins and faster cash conversion than institutional tenders because brand pull drives offtake.
- EHV is the technological moat - KEI is among a select group globally that can make 400 kV EHV cables, and new competitors face three to five years of pre-qualification before they can even bid for institutional projects, which is why the company holds close to 25% of the domestic EHV market and has supplied 330 kV cables to Australia, 220 kV cables to UAE and Spain, and is the only Indian company to qualify in the National Grid UK framework agreement for voltages up to 400 kV.
- Backward integration locks in quality and cost - the company makes its own PVC and XLPE compounds (the insulating and sheathing materials) at two dedicated plants, so it does not depend on third-party compounders for critical raw-material consistency.
- Exports are the next leg - export cable sales hit ₹1,669 crore in FY26 and grew 95% in the December quarter alone, helped by product approvals in over 60 international markets including the tightly regulated US and UK; the new Sanand plant in Gujarat cuts freight costs to port, removing the logistical penalty of shipping heavy cable reels from landlocked North India.
2. Stainless steel wire: a compact export-led niche
A small but steady business where more than half the output goes to developed-country customers who use the wire in everything from surgical tools to kitchenware.
- High-value downstream applications - the division makes hard, cold-heading and fine stainless-steel wires that end up in industrial filters, springs, welding electrodes, fasteners, medical tools and braided hoses, with products customized to each client’s specification.
- Export-heavy, developed-market customer base - more than 50% of SS Wire segment production is exported to developed countries, with export sales of ₹105 crore in FY26 out of total SS Wire segment sales of ₹212 crore.
- Stable, fully utilized capacity - the 9,000-tonne-per-annum plant at Rakholi ran at 89% utilization in FY25, and the business has held steady at ₹212 crore in annual sales for two consecutive years.
3. EPC projects: a cable-pull-through tool, not a growth business
Turnkey substation and transmission-line projects that exist to place KEI’s own cables - the company has been deliberately shrinking this division because the returns do not justify the working capital it ties up.
- Cables are the real product - in an EHV turnkey order, roughly 80% of the contract value is the cable itself, manufactured in-house, so KEI bids selectively only on projects with heavy cabling requirements and uses the EPC wrapper to secure cable sales that competitors cannot match on cost.
- Deliberately scaled down - non-cable EPC sales dropped from roughly ₹563 crore in FY24 to ₹311 crore in FY26, and management intends to keep the division at 4-5% of turnover going forward because the segment carries low margins, fierce competition, and long working-capital cycles with retention-money clauses.
- Still a capability, not a closure - the division retains an order book of ₹361 crore as of December 2025 and continues to execute gas-insulated and air-insulated substation projects for townships, railways and government electrification schemes, but only where the cable content makes the math work.
Group structure and partners
A publicly listed parent with a single long-standing technology partner in Switzerland, a captive solar investment, and no material subsidiaries.
- Simple holding structure - KEI Industries Limited is the listed parent, with promoters holding 35% as of March 2026; the only associate is a non-material 49% stake in KEI Cables SA PTY Ltd., and its sole former subsidiary in Australia was liquidated in 2024.
- Brugg Kabel AG is the technology backbone - the Swiss firm, with over a century of EHV cable experience up to 550 kV, has provided KEI with designs and process backup since 2010, and the collaboration was extended in 2016 to cover cables up to 400 kV.
- Captive solar for power cost certainty - in May 2026, KEI agreed to acquire a 26% stake in a special-purpose vehicle building a solar project in Rajasthan, securing up to 11.25 MW of captive power for its operations.
- Four international offices, 34 domestic branches - physical presence in UAE, Nepal, South Africa and Gambia supports export sales, while 26 warehouses and 34 branch offices across India feed the domestic dealer and institutional networks.