March 20 (Reuters) - Ecolab said on Friday it would acquire CoolIT Systems from KKR for about $4.75 billion in cash, as the water solutions firm seeks to capitalize on surging demand for liquid cooling in artificial intelligence-driven data centers.
Shares of the water management company were down 1% in premarket trading.
Technology companies have been ramping up spending on AI infrastructure, driving a shift from traditional air cooling to more efficient liquid-based systems capable of handling higher chip densities and power loads.
Owned by funds managed by KKR, CoolIT designs and manufactures liquid cooling systems used by hyperscale and colocation operators. Its customers include chipmakers such as Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.
Ecolab expects CoolIT’s hardware and thermal engineering to complement its own strengths in water, chemistry and digital monitoring, helping itturn into a more complete provider of cooling and fluid management.
CoolIT is likely to generate about $550 million in sales over the next 12 months, Ecolab said.
The deal, expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, will be accretive to Ecolab's adjusted diluted earnings per share by 2028.
Separately, Ecolab forecast first-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.69 to $1.71, up from $1.50 a year earlier.
For the full-year 2026, Ecolab continues to expect adjusted diluted earnings per share in the $8.43 to $8.63 range, excluding the impact of this deal.
(Reporting by Sumit Saha and Pranav Mathur in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Ananda and Leroy Leo)
