France's Legrand results lift shares to 5-year high

By Anna Peverieri

(Reuters) - French industrial group Legrand guided on Thursday for full-year 2025 organic sales growth of 6% to 10%, prompting its shares to rise to a 5-year high, as it reported full-year sales last year above market expectations.

Shares were up almost 8% at 0818 GMT, outperforming France's blue chip index CAC 40. RBC Capital Market analysts said the group posted "positive results", with a 2025 "supportive guidance".

"This performance is mainly due to the strong success of our data center offerings, as well as the sustained pace of acquisitions during the year," CEO Benoît Coquart said in a call with journalists.

He called the group's further growth remarkable taking into account a depressed building market.

The European construction market remains sluggish, hit by high interest rates and weak commercial real estate demand. However, investments in energy-efficient buildings and data centers provide a cushion.

Legrand, which sells products such as electrical junctions and EV chargers to commercial, industrial, and residential customers, reported full-year sales of 8.65 billion euros ($8.99 billion), topping a company-provided consensus of 8.54 billion euros. Annual sales in the data centre segment stood at of 1.6 billion euros.

In the U.S., which accounts for 37% of group revenue, sales increased 5.7% year-on-year.

However, in Europe, which represents 40% of the group's revenue, full-year sales fell 2.3%, hit by a weak construction market.

The group posted full-year adjusted operating profit of 1.78 billion euros, beating the company-compiled consensus of 1.73 billion euros.

Asked about AI startup DeepSeek, the Chinese low-cost alternative to U.S. rivals, Coquart told Reuters the growing adoption of open-source AI models would drive greater artificial intelligence penetration, fueling demand for data centers.

However, Legrand did not raise its guidance on the back of this trend, with the CEO saying DeepSeek and other open-source models remain fully in line with Legrand's outlook.

($1 = 0.9626 euros)

(Reporting by Anna Peverieri; Editing by Rod Nickel, Alexandra Hudson)