Corning Inc. (Corning, NY) acquired the remaining 50% equity ownership of Optical Fibres (Deeside, North Wales) from BICC plc (London) for a "consideration" of approximately $70 million. The consideration includes a cash payment of $44 million and assumption of BICC`s guarantee of half of Optical Fibres` debt. As a result of the acquisition, Optical Fibres became a wholly owned subsidiary of Corning. In addition to the sale, Corning and BICC entered into long-term arrangements to advance the deployment of Corning optical fiber and BICC optical cable in a number of national markets. Corning also announced its wholly owned subsidiary Corning International Corp. entered into a shareholders agreement with Leader Optic Fibre Cable Sdn Bhd (LOFC--Penang, Malaysia), a wholly owned subsidiary of Leader Universal Holdings Berhad (Penang, Malaysia). As part of this agreement, Corning assumed a minority equity stake in LOFC. Additional terms were not disclosed.