Summary
- Eaton will acquire COL Group from Oaktree’s Power Opportunities strategy for an enterprise value of €810 million.
- COL supplies medium-voltage distribution equipment, SF₆-free switchgear, grid automation, and modular power systems.
- The acquisition adds around 400 employees and four Italian facilities, subject to regulatory approval and completion expected in early 2027.
Eaton has agreed to acquire Italian electrical-equipment manufacturer COL Group for an enterprise value of €810 million as it increases its European manufacturing and power-distribution exposure to data centre and utility demand.
The transaction will see Eaton buy COL from Oaktree’s Power Opportunities strategy. COL specialises in medium-voltage electrical distribution, including SF₆-free switchgear, grid-automation equipment, and modular power systems.
COL employs around 400 people and operates facilities in Turin, Milan, Bergamo, and Catania. The company is forecasting sales of €250 million in 2027.
The deal remains subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, with completion expected during the first quarter of 2027.
Medium voltage moves closer to the bottleneck
Medium-voltage equipment sits between the grid connection and much of the low-voltage infrastructure that ultimately feeds data halls. As individual campuses increase in size, the volume and rating of switchgear, transformers, busways, protection systems, and associated controls required to distribute electricity across a site also increases.
For data centre developers, that has made electrical equipment availability part of the construction schedule rather than simply a procurement decision made after a building design is settled. A campus may have a viable plot and a planned grid connection but still depend on the timely manufacture, installation, and commissioning of substantial electrical-distribution systems before IT load can be energised.
Eaton said COL will add both complementary technology and additional manufacturing capability in Europe. The acquisition therefore gives the US-listed power-management group more than a product portfolio: it adds factories and engineering capacity in a region where utilities and data centre developers are simultaneously investing in electrical infrastructure.
COL’s SF₆-free switchgear offering is also notable as operators and equipment manufacturers move towards alternatives to conventional fluorinated-gas equipment. Data centre electrical rooms require compact, reliable switching systems, particularly where large loads have to be divided across multiple distribution paths and redundancy configurations.
Eaton already supplies equipment across the data centre power chain and has increasingly described its offer in terms of integrated grid-to-chip infrastructure. Bringing COL into that portfolio would extend the medium-voltage manufacturing base behind that strategy.
Manufacturing capacity becomes strategic
The acquisition comes as power availability is reshaping the European data centre development pipeline. Grid queues and connection constraints dominate the early stages of many projects, but securing a connection does not remove the need to deliver the substations, switchgear, protection, distribution, backup systems, and internal electrical architecture required behind the meter.
That places manufacturers in a different position from the earlier phase of data centre growth, when rack, server, and network expansion could attract more attention than the electrical plant around them. Larger AI-oriented facilities are increasing both the overall site loads and the density of equipment that must be served downstream.
Eaton’s purchase price values COL at more than three times its forecast 2027 sales, although the companies have not disclosed a separate valuation for particular technologies or manufacturing sites. The strategic case rests on how effectively the acquired engineering and production base can be integrated into Eaton’s existing European platform.
Eaton reported revenue of $27.4 billion in 2025 and operates across data centres, utilities, industrial facilities, commercial buildings, aerospace, mobility, and other power-management markets. COL is considerably smaller, but its concentration in medium-voltage systems places it close to an area of infrastructure where data centre growth is creating sustained equipment requirements.
The transaction does not itself create new grid capacity for European data centres. It does, however, increase Eaton’s manufacturing exposure to the equipment needed once projects move from power allocation and design into physical electrical delivery.
Completion is currently expected in the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals. Until then, COL remains under Oaktree ownership and the proposed integration has not closed.
