Legrand SA lifts organic growth target to 6%‑8% on data centres

Data centre demand now underpins a plan for faster sales growth and higher profit margins through 2030. Legrand SA EPALR, the French maker of electrical and digital building infrastructure, set a 6 to 8 per cent annual organic growth goal in its Sept. 28 release. The target covers 2027 through 2030.

The company's Sept. 29 investor presentation compares that range with the 3 to 5 per cent organic growth ambition in its 2024 plan. Legrand also lifted its average adjusted operating margin goal to 21 to 22 per cent of sales from around 20 per cent. Legrand's release states the new profit goal as a margin percentage, without an absolute 2030 operating profit forecast.

Legrand shares were little changed at €142.50 in Paris as of 10:47 a.m. CEST on Sept. 30, according to its EPALR quote page. The Sept. 28 announcement preceded that quote, so the intraday reading alone does not establish a reaction to the capital markets presentation.

The Sept. 29 deck projects 2026 data centre sales of €3.9 billion. That would exceed the €3.0 billion recorded in 2025. Legrand's next scheduled report is its nine month results on Nov. 5, when overall sales and margin will offer the first published check on the current year behind its longer forecast.

Data Centres Account For 32 Per Cent Of Sales

Data centres accounted for 32 per cent of Legrand's first half 2026 sales, according to its Sept. 28 release. Energy transition products contributed another 22 per cent, while building infrastructure, including digital lifestyles, made up 46 per cent. That mix puts the data centre business alongside electrification as a measurable driver of the group's new growth range.

The company says critical power products generated 35 per cent of data centre sales in 2025. Physical compute infrastructure and monitoring, management and control each generated 25 per cent. Cooling accounted for 5 per cent and testing and lifecycle services for the remaining 10 per cent, giving Legrand several kinds of equipment to sell into a single facility without disclosing customer level orders.

North and Central America generated 76 per cent of Legrand's data centre sales in the Sept. 29 presentation. Europe and the rest of the world each supplied 12 per cent. The geographic mix makes continued North American construction a larger near term variable for this business than Legrand's broader European building market.

Legrand's Sept. 28 release says it will unveil a vision for the transition toward low voltage direct current architectures. Separately, it says new benchmark offerings will launch in coming quarters. The release attaches no order value or measured efficiency result to that vision.

Acquisitions Support The Higher Margin Plan

Legrand's 2024 plan assumed acquisitions would add 3 to 5 per cent to annual sales growth. The Sept. 28 plan now targets an average acquisition effect of around 5 per cent a year from 2027 through 2030. It also envisages divestments representing €0.5 billion to €1.0 billion of sales over that period. The group expects to devote around 60 per cent of free cash flow to acquisitions, so the forecast depends on deals as well as demand for existing products.

Legrand's July 29 first half results reported 9.8 per cent organic sales growth and a 6.9 per cent boost from acquisitions. Adjusted operating margin after acquisitions was 20.8 per cent. The Sept. 29 deck sets 2026 organic growth at 8 to 10 per cent. The new longer range is below that current year target, despite being above the 2024 plan.

The group also targets free cash flow equal to 13 to 15 per cent of sales on average during that period, according to its Sept. 28 release. It expects cash conversion above 100 per cent and a dividend payout of around half of net income. None of those percentage targets identifies a euro amount of future profit or cash, which will depend on the sales base reached by 2030.

"Confident in our action plans, and in light of our strong first-half performance, we are raising our full-year 2026 targets," chief executive Benoît Coquart said in the July 29 results.

Malaysia Offers A Test Of Data Centre Demand

Legrand used Malaysia as a case study in its Sept. 29 presentation, describing local manufacturing and engineering around its regional data centre platform. The Malaysia passage in Legrand's Sept. 28 release names no customer or order value.

Separately in Malaysia, Bitdeer Technologies Group NASDAQBTDR, the Singapore based bitcoin miner and AI cloud operator, said on Sept. 29 that customer offtake covered more than 70 per cent of its planned 21.7 megawatt Johor site. A Mugglehead report on the Bitdeer commitment traced its first quarter 2027 energization target. Legrand's Sept. 28 release does not identify Bitdeer as a customer.

Read more: Bitdeer Technologies Group projects US$1.7B from Malaysia AI offtake

Chris Howard, an executive director at property consultancy JLL, told Reuters on July 24 that broad support for data centres can differ from local acceptance because of perceived effects on energy prices and water use. Legrand's Sept. 28 release gives no Malaysian order backlog against which to measure its exposure there.

Legrand's Nov. 5 nine month results are the next dated test of its 2026 sales trajectory and adjusted operating margin. The company has set Feb. 10, 2027 for annual results, when the €3.9 billion data centre sales projection can be compared with a full year of reported figures.