Kingspan Group shares hit a four-and-a-half-year high after the company said it was buying data-center power management system company BMC Manufacturing for up to 900 million euros ($1.04 billion).

Shares were up 8.60 euros, or 8.9%, at 105.10 euros in early afternoon European trading, a level not seen since January 2022. They are currently up 42% over the year to date.

The Irish building-supplies group said late Tuesday that it was paying an initial 850 million euros for BMC, 600 million euros of which would be paid in cash from existing credit facilities, and the rest in shares. A further 50 million euros could be paid depending upon certain profit targets being met.

BMC designs, engineers and manufactures low-voltage switchgear and critical power management solutions for the data-centre industry.

The acquisition is part of the company's strategy to evolve its data offering toward fully converged power, cooling and containment solutions, Chief Executive Gene Murtagh said.

"Combined with Advnsys' deep partnerships with multiple hyper-scalers, [this] will mean that we are well-positioned to meet the accelerating global data centre demand," he added.

BMC is forecast to report revenue this year of around 280 million euros and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of 90 million euros. Ebitda is expected to double to 180 million euros next year, supported by a strong pipeline, Kingspan said.

The acquisition is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of this year.