nVent Electric agreed Monday to acquire Maverick Power for $1.75 billion cash, subject to customary adjustments, with an additional $550 million contingent on hitting performance milestones through 2027. The London-domiciled, St. Louis Park-operated manufacturer disclosed the transaction during its earnings call, marking its largest deployment of capital into data center electrical distribution infrastructure.
Maverick Power manufactures modular power distribution units and busway systems sold directly into hyperscale data center builds. The acquisition adds $420 million in trailing twelve-month revenue to nVent's thermal management and electrical enclosures segment, which already generated $2.1 billion in 2024. Maverick's client roster includes three of the five largest U.S. cloud providers, none named in the announcement. The $550 million earn-out ties to revenue and margin targets tied to North American data center construction starts, with the first tranche payable in early 2027 if Maverick exceeds $580 million in annualized revenue by Q4 2026.
The deal structure telegraphs two operator assumptions. First, nVent's management expects Maverick's revenue to grow 38% annually through 2027, faster than the 22% CAGR posted by comparable enclosure and power distribution peers since 2022. Second, the earn-out's 2027 trigger aligns precisely with projected completion dates for 18 gigawatts of new hyperscale capacity currently under construction across Virginia, Texas, and Oregon. Maverick's modular busway systems ship with 12- to 16-week lead times, meaning orders placed in Q1 2027 fulfill builds finishing in Q3 2027. The bet is that hyperscalers ordering power infrastructure in 2025 will pull forward 2028 builds into 2027 to capture earlier compute deployment windows.
The price paid — 4.2x trailing revenue at the base case, 5.5x if the full earn-out triggers — sits above the 3.8x median for electrical component acquisitions since 2022 but below the 6.1x Eaton paid for Power Distribution Inc. in March 2024. nVent is paying for contracted backlog visibility and installed customer relationships that competitors need 18 to 24 months to replicate. Maverick's three unnamed hyperscale clients represent 68% of its revenue, a concentration risk nVent will inherit but also a moat competitors cannot easily breach during the 2025-2027 buildout cycle.
Allocators should track three follow-on signals. First, watch for nVent's debt-to-EBITDA ratio post-close, expected in Q2 2025; management guided to 2.8x leverage, which would restrict further acquisitions until Q1 2026. Second, monitor whether Eaton, Schneider Electric, or Vertiv announce competing buys in modular power distribution by Q3 2025 — Maverick was one of four remaining independent U.S. operators at this scale. Third, track Virginia and Texas data center permitting approvals through June 2025; delays beyond Q2 would compress the 2027 revenue window that justifies the earn-out and likely trigger repricing discussions.
The transaction closes in Q2 2025, funded through a combination of cash on hand and a $1.2 billion term loan facility with JPMorgan and Bank of America. nVent's stock fell 3.2% in after-hours trading Monday, pricing in leverage concerns and earn-out execution risk that management now owns through 2027.