Legrand lifts 2026 sales outlook on strong data centre demand

By Mathias de Rozario and Etienne Breban

Nov 5 (Reuters) - France's Legrand raised its 2026 sales growth forecast for the second time this year on Thursday, as robust data centre demand drove revenue above market expectations in the first nine months of the year.

Legrand's shares rose 4% by 0802 GMT, among top performers on Paris' blue-chip index CAC 40.

The electrical and digital building infrastructure group now expects sales growth of 20% to 22% excluding currency effects and organic growth of 11% to 13% in 2026, up from the 16% to 19% and 8% to 10% ranges, respectively, announced in July.

Once known mainly for its wiring devices and electrical installation products, Legrand has become one of the beneficiaries of the AI boom, supplying the power distribution, busways, UPS systems, cooling and racks that data centres depend on.

Its nine-month sales reached €8.33 billion ($9.35 billion), up 12.7% organically, exceeding the €8.08 billion and 10.1% organic growth expected by analysts on average in a company-provided consensus.

"Around a third of the group's turnover comes from the data centre, which has achieved growth of nearly 40% over nine months," CEO Benoît Coquart said in a call with journalists.

Demand from US hyperscalers continues to underpin orders for data-centre power, cooling and other equipment, but the Legrand management has also pointed to accelerating demand across all its regions.

"AI has become a matter of sovereignty, and so there will be a push to build data-centre infrastructure in most countries; nobody can afford to miss out on this wave," Coquart said.

He added that electrification accounted for about a fifth of sales and was growing at 4% to 6%, while traditional building products made up about half of sales and were growing marginally.

Legrand, which relies heavily on acquisitions to drive growth, has already announced seven takeovers in 2026. It expects these deals to add around 8% to sales for the year.

($1 = 0.8913 euros)

(Reporting by Mathias de Rozario and Etienne Breban in Gdansk; Editing by Vijay Kishore)