Eaton agrees to acquire COL Group for €810M in European power deal

An €810 million agreement would bring an Italian switchgear manufacturer under a global power supplier as European data centres and utilities seek more distribution equipment. Eaton Corporation plc NYSEETN, the Dublin-based power management manufacturer, said Sept. 25 it agreed to buy COL Group, an Italian switchgear producer forecasting €250 million of 2027 sales.

Oaktree's Power Opportunities strategy is selling COL Group at an €810 million enterprise value, equivalent to 3.24 times the target's 2027 sales forecast. That is an enterprise measure, rather than a stated cash payment to the seller. Eaton expects to close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to customary conditions and regulatory approvals.

Eaton shares ended Sept. 25 virtually unchanged at US$439.98 on the New York Stock Exchange, according to the NYSEETN quote timestamped 4:00 p.m. EDT. Eaton's announcement gave no figure for COL Group's data-centre orders or the additional factory output it expects the purchase to produce.

The target makes sulfur hexafluoride-free switchgear, grid automation technology and modular power systems, according to Eaton's Sept. 25 release. Its facilities are in Turin, Milan, Bergamo and Catania. The €250 million is COL Group's own sales forecast, and Eaton did not estimate how much revenue it would consolidate from the target in 2027.

Prior Revenue Trails Deal Forecast

COL Group's corporate profile, viewed Sept. 26, lists €177 million of revenue for 2024. It also lists more than 3,000 clients and says the IME Group joined COL Group in 2024. Those older figures offer a scale reference for COL Group's 2027 sales forecast.

The projected €250 million for 2027 is €73 million above COL Group's published 2024 revenue; the comparison spans an acquisition inside the target as well as three calendar years. Eaton's Sept. 25 announcement does not break the forecast down between utility and data-centre customers. Nor does it publish COL Group's earnings, debt, cash or margins, the figures needed to judge the purchase against profit rather than sales.

“The acquisition will enhance our ability to support utility and data center customers' increasing need for resilient, sustainable power infrastructure and integrated grid-to-chip power solutions,” Eaton EMEA president Omar Zaire said in the Sept. 25 release.

Zaire's description sets out the intended customer benefit, while the release names no COL Group customer contract, reserved output or power rating for the capacity Eaton would add. The disclosed €810 million valuation therefore measures a business with forecast sales, rather than a specified number of data-centre megawatts. Eaton did not disclose a funding plan or a forecast for the acquisition's effect on earnings.

Eaton Electrical Global Backlog More Than Doubled

Eaton's July 31 second-quarter results reported US$2.5 billion in Electrical Global sales, up 44 per cent from the same quarter of 2025. Organic sales rose 18 per cent, while acquired thermal-management operations contributed 25 percentage points of growth. The segment's operating margin was 19.8 per cent, a measure Eaton has not provided for COL Group.

Electrical Global's backlog at the end of June stood 103 per cent above June 2025, and its rolling 12-month average orders rose 33 per cent organically. The same July 31 report put the electrical businesses' trailing book-to-bill ratio at 1.2, showing orders ahead of shipments before the proposed purchase. Those figures describe Eaton's existing operations and do not establish COL Group's backlog.

Hammond Targets Full Texas Production During 2028

Hammond Power Solutions Inc. TSEHPS.A, the Guelph, Ont., maker of dry-type transformers, said Sept. 22 it had leased a Fort Worth, Texas, plant to serve U.S. customers. Hammond expects to spend about C$50 million equipping its initial phase and to start production in the fourth quarter of 2027. It expects full production in the first quarter of 2028, when the plant's initial annual manufacturing capacity would be about C$250 million.

COL Group's €250 million figure is a sales forecast, while Hammond's C$250 million figure describes manufacturing capacity based on anticipated demand and normal operating assumptions. The measures cannot be treated as comparable revenue, though both companies have put a price and a timetable on more electrical manufacturing. Mugglehead reported Hammond's Fort Worth plans on Sept. 23.

Read more: Hammond Power Solutions plans C$50M Texas plant with C$250M annual capacity

The first quarter of 2027 is Eaton's stated closing window, subject to regulatory approvals and customary conditions. The closing date will help determine how much of COL Group's 2027 sales can enter Eaton's consolidated revenue, while the Sept. 25 release gives no contribution estimate.