nVent Acquires Avail’s Electrical Group

nVent announced the first major acquisition of the year when it agreed to acquire the switchgear, busway, and enclosure businesses from Avail Infrastructure Group.

These three businesses generated about $375 million in revenue in 2024, with the business being acquired for a 2.6x revenues, or $975 million.

nVent Press Release

The press release shared:

“nVent Electric, a global leader in electrical connection and protection solutions, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the enclosures, switchgear and bus systems businesses of Avail Infrastructure Solutions (the “Electrical Products Group”) for a purchase price of $975 million, subject to customary adjustments. The Electrical Products Group is a leading provider of infrastructure solutions, designed to help ensure safe and reliable electrical operations primarily in the infrastructure vertical, including power utilities and data centers.

“We are excited to acquire the Electrical Products Group of Avail,” said nVent Chair and CEO Beth Wozniak. “The
demand for control buildings, switchgear and bus systems is expected to increase with the modernization of aging
electrical infrastructure, expanding electrical capacity to meet power demand and the growth of data centers. The
Electrical Products Group has long-standing customer relationships with power utilities, data centers, OEMs and
EPCs and a significant installed base across the United States. This acquisition builds on the platform we acquired
with the Trachte acquisition and expands our offering and capabilities.”

The Electrical Products Group business is a leading North American provider of infrastructure solutions with
approximately 1,100 employees and nine manufacturing locations in the United States. Electrical Products Group
estimates revenues of approximately $375 million in the 12 months ending February 28, 2025, and has a strong
backlog.

nVent expects the acquisition to be accretive to adjusted earnings per share in the rst year following completion of
the transaction. The effective enterprise value multiple is approximately 12.5 times the anticipated Electrical
Products Group trailing twelve-month EBITDA.

The transaction is expected to close in the 1st half of 2025, subject to customary closing conditions. nVent expects
to fund the acquisition with available cash on hand.

Upon closing, nVent plans to operate the Electrical Products Group predominantly within its Systems Protection
(formerly Enclosures) business segment.”

Observations on the nVent / Avail Deal

• This is an interesting, and expansive, opportunity, for nVent. While the enclosure part of Avail is an expansion of nVent’s traditional business, it evidently is a product line expansion or adding share into a segment. According to its website, the enclosure business is “North America’s largest, most experienced manufacturer of highly engineered, custom-built, and ruggedly constructed modular e-houses. Our ballistic-rated e-houses, custom e-houses, modular data centers, power distribution centers, and BESS (Battery Energy Storage System) solutions are custom-engineered.”
• The switchgear business is for custom-built equipment, and they make “metal-clad substations provide many advantages over open-air designs, including a smaller footprint and more protection and security. Whether the application is part of a large substation or a microgrid,
• And its bus systems are found in a wide range of environments worldwide. With extensive experience in custom-designed bus duct products that deliver proven performance, Avail is focused on medium and high-voltage bus systems for industrial, commercial, or utility applications.
• Each has its own rep networks, which means either nVent will run the business as a standalone business / brand or will undergo significant rationalization. Given its announced desire to put this into its Systems Protection business (formerly Enclosures), there are probably many existing nVent (Hoffman) reps who would like to add on this package.
• With the continued growth of the industrial, utility, and data center markets, this is a timely investment that could have nice growth. Other companies that compete with segments of Avail could have just seen their valuations grow.
• It is interesting, however, that nVent decided not to acquire Rig-A-Lite, which is an industrial lighting business that Avail also owns. After all, lighting is part of electrical. While it goes to market via lighting agents, which is something different for nVent, is it a desire not to be in lighting? A market segment / product category nVent does not understand? A very small part of the business? Perhaps it has not grown as well or nVent did not see the growth potential? It could have been an interesting add-on to the nVent package given how industrially-focused nVent is.
  • But it does beg the question about the future of Rig-A-Lite given that Avail is left with a lighting business and a welding business (WIS). Lighting agents may want to ask questions.

New opportunities for nVent. Questions, and possibly opportunities for nVent manufacturer representatives and eventually a broader offering for distributors if they are given the chance to offer these solutions.