French electrical and digital building infrastructure group Legrand on Thursday reported a better-than-expected profit for the first quarter of 2026, driven by a growing data centre market.
Adjusted operating profit grew 11.5% from last year to 524.7 billion euros over the period, compared with 519 million euros in a company-provided consensus.
Legrand recorded an 11.4% growth in sales, almost exclusively driven by a 29.1% increase in its biggest market, the United States. Tech companies are investing heavily in data centres to meet surging demand for data-hungry AI models.
"Since the start of the year, we have announced four acquisitions, all in the data centre and energy transition sectors, representing a combined annual turnover of approximately 275 million euros," Legrand CEO Benoit Coquart said in a call with reporters.
He added that data centre activity should represent around 30% of sales in 2026 after growing to 26% last year.
Sales have been impacted by a 5.8% hit from foreign exchange and continued weaknesses in new construction and renovation activity, particularly in key European markets.
In Europe, which accounted for 36.3% of sales, growth in Germany and Italy were not sufficient to offset declines in France, Spain or Britain.
"We knew the first quarter would be difficult, and it is. Will things improve by the end of the year? That’s still what most experts think, with the big question mark over the impact of the crisis in the Middle East," Coquart told Reuters.
Legrand saw no significant impact from the conflict in the Middle East, with 2% of sales coming from the region.
"We estimate price effects of 2% to 3%," Coquart said.
Legrand confirmed its full-year outlook, expecting a negative currency impact of 2%.
(Reporting by Mathias de Rozario in Gdansk; Additional reporting by Etienne Breban; Editing by Matt Scuffham)
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