Chief Executive Valerio Battista told an analyst call that until recently M&A "was a suicide" due to sky-high valuations. The situation however is changing and a strong balance sheet puts Prysmian in a position to seize opportunities.

"Frankly speaking, I believe that in the next 12-24 months ... some of our competitors may come to the door," he said, indicating this would be the most likely use of the group's cash stash.

In the absence of a deal Prysmian would likely return the money to investors through a share buyback or in another form to avoid its liquidity drawing potential buyers, he added.

Prysmian said it now saw full-year adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) at between 1.575-1.675 billion euros ($1.75-$1.87 billion).

That compares with a previous adjusted EBITDA guidance of between 1.375-1.525 billion euros it provided earlier this year.

First-half EBITDA rose almost 26% to 878 million euros, above a company-provided consensus of 848 million euros, helped by the energy transition and electrification, which Battista said "require power transmission and distribution grid hardening and development."

The company expects a cash flow of between 550-650 million euros this year, up from a previous guidance of 450-550 million.

Milan-listed shares in Prysmian reversed losses after the results, rising as much as 5.7% to close up 4.1%. ($1 = 0.8977 euros)

(Reporting by Federico Maccioni and Giulio Piovaccari, editing by Gavin Jones and Valentina Za)

By Federico Maccioni and Giulio Piovaccari