Eaton Buys Italy's COL Group for €810 Million, Adding Switchgear Capacity as Data Centre Demand Outstrips Supply
The power management company is acquiring a medium-voltage equipment maker with four Italian factories, a move that buys manufacturing capacity in a category where lead times have stretched to two years or more.
DUBLIN: Eaton has agreed to acquire Italy-based COL Group from Oaktree Capital Management for an enterprise value of €810 million, the power management company said on Friday. The deal expands Eaton's power distribution and manufacturing capacity in Europe at a moment when data centre developers and utilities are competing for the same scarce electrical equipment.
COL Group employs about 400 people across facilities in Turin, Milan, Bergamo, and Catania. The company develops medium-voltage electrical distribution solutions, including switchgears, grid automation technologies, and modular power systems, and forecasts €250 million in sales for 2027. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027.
The strategic logic runs through the supply chain. Medium-voltage switchgear is one of the items that determines whether a data centre can energize on schedule. Lead times for the equipment have stretched well beyond historical norms as hyperscalers, utilities, and industrial customers all place orders simultaneously. Eaton already manufactures switchgear in the United States and Europe, but the COL acquisition adds four Italian production sites and a workforce that specializes in the exact equipment categories that data centre projects need most.
Eaton's broader business is being reshaped by the same forces driving the acquisition. The company expects adjusted profit between $13.4 and $13.6 per share for 2026, and has been expanding its electrical segment capacity across multiple geographies to meet data centre demand. Buying an established manufacturer with qualified products and existing utility relationships shortens the timeline compared with building new production lines from scratch, which can take years to permit, equip, and staff.
BuiltWorld AI Operational Take: Equipment procurement is now a critical-path item on data centre schedules, and Eaton's move signals that the major electrical suppliers see organic capacity expansion as too slow. For project teams, the relevant question is whether this consolidation relieves or worsens lead times. When a handful of large suppliers absorb smaller manufacturers, buyers gain fewer alternatives in negotiation but potentially more reliable delivery from a supplier with deeper balance sheet resources. Teams should be locking in switchgear orders earlier than they did three years ago, and they should be stress-testing delivery commitments against the possibility that capacity gets reallocated to larger customers.