Greetings. Welcome to Ecolab's acquisition of CoolIT Systems conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. The question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero from your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. At this time, it is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Andy Hedberg, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you, Andy. You may now begin.
Thank you. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Ecolab's conference call to discuss our announced acquisition of CoolIT Systems. With me today is Christophe Beck, Ecolab's Chairman and CEO, and Scott Kirkland, our CFO. Today's presentation deck is available on our investor relations website. You can access it now and follow along throughout the call. Please take a moment to read the cautionary statements in these materials, which state that this teleconference and the associated supplemental materials include estimates of future performance. These are forward-looking statements and actual results could differ materially from those projected. Factors that could cause actual results to differ are described under the Risk Factors section in our most recent Form 10-K and in our posted materials. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Christophe.
Thank you, Andy, and hello, everyone, and welcome to our Monday morning call on this great acquisition of CoolIT. I'm very excited to announce Ecolab's acquisition of CoolIT Systems. On Friday, we shared that Ecolab has entered into a firm agreement with KKR to acquire CoolIT for $4.75 billion. We expect the deal to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to the normal customary approvals. Before we dive into this exciting acquisition and what it means for Ecolab, I want to give you an update on the strong performance we're expecting to deliver for the first quarter and how we currently see 2026 trending. We actually feel very good because we are ready, and what we're building prepares Ecolab for a future of accelerated growth.
Despite the uncertainty in the macro environment and rising geopolitical challenges we're all facing, our customers count on Ecolab to deliver every single day anywhere around the world. We're executing and supplying reliably, serving customers when they need us the most. Turning to slide three. For the first quarter, which we'll report in about a month, we expect to deliver adjusted EPS of $1.69-$1.71, representing 13%-14% growth year-over-year. This is a tightened range around our original midpoint and reflects the confidence we have in our strong delivery. We see organic sales growth trending as expected, with continued strong margin expansion to deliver double-digit earnings growth. For full year 2026, excluding CoolIT, we are reiterating our original EPS guidance, where we expect to deliver 12%-15% adjusted EPS growth.
Organic sales growth is expected to be higher than our original 3%-4% target, given our recently announced energy surcharge. This surcharge is expected to mitigate the impact of higher delivered product costs, which are expected to increase further in the second quarter. Bottom line, our near-term plan is steady. We're serving customers without disruption and staying focused on delivering superior returns for shareholders in 2026. Now looking at slide four. Our long-term algorithm is steady as well, and with CoolIT, it has strengthened even more. We remain committed to 12%-15% adjusted EPS growth supported by disciplined execution and balanced capital deployment.
We're on track to reach an operating income margin of more than 20% by 2027, driven by 100-150 basis points of annual OI expansion from value pricing, strong growth in our high-margin growth engines, innovation, and productivity. As our growth engines scale, we see a clear path towards 5%-7% organic sales growth accelerating from our current 3%-4% trajectory. Adding high-growth, high-margin businesses like CoolIT further strengthens our durable growth algorithm. Turning to slide 5. Our growth engines, you're familiar with them, Global High-Tech, Ecolab Digital, Pest Elimination, and Life Sciences, are growing really fast. Collectively, they are compounding at double-digit rates and now with CoolIT represent nearly 25% of the portfolio. Our core businesses are performing well, delivering steady mid-single-digit underlying growth with strong and expanding margins.
As 2026 progresses, we expect improvement in basic industries and paper, which will support better volume performance for Ecolab. With growth engines compounding, the core performing well, and the challenged businesses improving, we will grow faster, and we will do it with strong margins. Now on slide six. Our growth engines are central to our long-term growth targets, so we're investing in each of them with purpose. Capacity where demand is constrained, new technologies where high performance wins, and digital scale where connectivity compounds value. In Pest Elimination, we're already performing within our long-term sales target range and have a long runway as we scale our Pest Intelligence platform. It's an outcome-based offering that nobody else has at that scale, and that grows share and margin. In Life Sciences, momentum is accelerating with very high margin.
New capacity comes online in the second half of 2026, which will remove constraints and unlock further growth for a business where long-term margins can reach 30%. In Ecolab Digital, we're growing more than 20% with a run rate of $400 million in sales in a $13 billion market and growing. We're still in the early stages, and expanding connection and monetization across applications gives us a long runway from here. In Global High-Tech, we're performing extremely well as the AI build-out continues.
We're uniquely positioned across fabs and data centers. We entered the high tech industry in 2021 with only about $150 million in sales and with very strong organic growth and the addition of Ovivo and now CoolIT, Global High-Tech will be a $1.5 billion business delivering strong double-digit growth with margins north of 20%. Focusing more closely on Global High-Tech on slide seven. AI demand is reshaping the digital infrastructure, and global AI compute power is expected to roughly double over the next 3-4 years. Industry plans call for about 50 GW of incremental compute demand, driving roughly 70 new fabs and 1,000 new data centers over the next few years. Today, that represents a $10 billion opportunity for our Global High-Tech alone, and it is growing extremely fast.
This is why AI is central to Ecolab's growth strategy. Large visible demand, a platform that spans fabs and data centers, and a model that scales with above-average margins. As the world's water technology and services company, we are best positioned to support the industry's growing needs and capture a leading share of that growth. This is actually a high-tech water business, serving critical water needs for the world's most demanding customers. This is Ecolab at its best. Looking at Slide 8. Water sits at every critical step of AI. You need ultrapure water to produce the chips. You need water to generate the electricity that powers those chips, and you need water to cool the chips in data centers. On the microelectronics side, we partner with fabs to deliver ultrapure water and water circularity programs.
Capability is strengthened by Ovivo, which we acquired in the fourth quarter of 2025. Together, we now provide end-to-end water offerings for microelectronics production. This allows customers to produce more chips with less water. In data centers, we combine Ecolab's water treatment, chemistry, cooling liquids, and 3D TRASAR monitoring in our latest Cooling as a Service platform offering with CoolIT's direct-to-chip liquid cooling platform. Together, we deliver more computing with less cooling through a single integrated site-to-chip model that improves reliability, efficiency, and uptime. That's why Global High-Tech is scaling as a growth engine. A business with about $1.5 billion in sales, including CoolIT, and expected to compound at more than 20% per year with margins expanding above 20%. On slide nine, you can see just how quickly the liquid cooling market is expanding.
AI is making liquid cooling the default for high-density compute, and the market is scaling fast. Industry estimates project more than 30% annual growth, with the addressable market reaching approximately $50 billion by 2035. This growth is being driven by rising compute demand, increasing chip heat output, and higher rack densities, all of which require more effective cooling solutions. That is exactly where our combined platform plays. Together, Ecolab and CoolIT provide a single platform that meets customers where they are already investing as they standardize high-density deployments. The secular tailwind is strong and durable. More AI, more data, higher heat equal more liquid cooling, and an expanded platform positions us to capture that growth. Turning to slide 10. Within this market, CoolIT is a clear leader.
Direct-to-chip liquid cooling is a $5 billion market today within the $10 billion Global High-Tech opportunity we just discussed, and it's growing at about 30% annually as high-density AI deployments becomes a standard. For perspective, only 5% of data centers already use this technology, which means 95% of the existing ones will shift at some point. CoolIT is a scale leader with a double-digit share and a top three position in North America. Demand is expanding so quickly that supply is tight across the industry, leaving room for multiple winners. What sets CoolIT apart is its anchored technology, validated by hyperscale customers and engineered to perform with hotter chips and denser racks. That leadership in a large, fast-growing market sets up the acceleration you will see as our Global High-Tech scales rapidly with CoolIT.
Now on slide 11, viewed through the lens of growth, the impact is compelling. CoolIT brings a scaled $550 million revenue base with 30% margins, driving EBITDA that is growing much faster than its rapid sales growth. By adding CoolIT, we expand our high tech total addressable market from $5 billion-$10 billion. Because this is a high-growth, high-margin business, CoolIT is expected to lift Ecolab's total organic sales growth by more than one percentage point, beginning 1 year after close. It's a powerful addition that strengthens the long-term growth trajectory of our fastest growth engine. Together, Ecolab and CoolIT create the industry's most complete cooling platform. A single, integrated, service-led offering that spans site-to-chip, pairing world-class anchored technologies with water expertise, chemistry, monitoring, and global service.
That combination, which is a typical Ecolab combination, positions us to deliver more value to customers and capture a leading share of this expanding market. Looking at slide 12, you'll see a snapshot of CoolIT's capabilities. CoolIT is a global leader in advanced direct-to-chip cooling solutions built on deep engineering expertise and real-world performance across the AI ecosystem. The company employs more than 600 people with strong design and manufacturing capabilities and active deployments with major hyperscalers and chip makers, including NVIDIA and AMD. Its platform includes next-generation CDUs, cold plates, rack manifolds, and cooling loops, all engineered to perform together as one closed loop liquid cooling system. CoolIT's innovation centers in Canada and Taiwan provide rapid prototyping, testing, and engineering depth at a time when customers need high-performance solutions very quickly.
These capabilities directly complement Ecolab's strength in water management, chemistry, digital monitoring, and global service delivery. Together, we create a differentiated end-to-end cooling platform designed to scale with the industry's most demanding customers. Now turning to slide 13, this is a growth acquisition, one that fits squarely within our strategy. Ecolab will acquire CoolIT for approximately $4.75 billion in cash. The deal is accretive to our long-term sales and EPS growth algorithm, with returns expected to be significantly above our weighted average cost of capital. We expect to maintain our strong investment-grade profile. On a pro forma basis, net debt to adjusted EBITDA is anticipated to be 3x at close, turning back to about 2x by the end of the second year after closing already.
Closing is targeted for the third quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. On slide 14, you can see how CoolIT reinforces our long-term successful Ecolab business model. In a liquid-cooled data center, the CDUs serve as the anchor points of the cooling loops, and there are up to 100 CDUs per data center. These CDUs are the central interface between facility water and the coolant circulating through the thousands of cold plates and chips in servers. Cold plates change every time chips change generations, with chip innovation happening faster than ever as new chips come to market every 6-12 months. CDUs change as power requirements go up. It's in a way a consumable business. Around that anchor, Ecolab brings a robust recurring portfolio, chemistry, coolants, digital monitoring through 3D TRASAR, utility water management, pretreatment, and water safety programs.
This is the Ecolab model we have practiced for more than 100 years in all the industries we serve, and it scales very effectively. As customers add servers, increase density, or activate additional rows, the system runs harder and requires more consumables, monitoring and service. Cold plates refresh with each new chip generation and CDUs are upgraded as thermal loads rise. Most importantly, with CoolIT, customer spend with Ecolab increases significantly, expanding by 3x-5x compared with today. With this, we have identified significant sales synergies between the two offerings. CoolIT strengthens the Ecolab model. It anchors our consumable digital capabilities and service with high-performance technologies that allow us to deliver better customer performance. Now on slide 15, we see further differentiation when digital intelligence is embedded directly into the platform. CoolIT CDU is the in-row liquid cooling unit built for today's high-power AI rooms.
These units deliver stable flow, efficiency transfer, and modern controls that allow operators to deploy high-density AI racks consistently across sites. When we embed Ecolab's 3D TRASAR technology inside the CDU, the system becomes significantly more capable. 3D TRASAR provides real-time visibility into coolant quality, temperature, flow rate, and system health. It enables automated alerts, precision dosing, predictive maintenance, and continuous optimization, all of which protect the loop and improve data center performance. This is 3D TRASAR at its best and Ecolab at its best. As thermal loads continue to rise, this level of intelligence becomes essential. Together, CoolIT's anchor technologies and Ecolab's digital capabilities create a differentiated hyperscale-ready CDU that improves performance, reduces pump and chiller load, accelerates commissioning, and allows global standardization. This is a meaningful advantage as customers race to deploy infrastructure consistently across regions.
On slide 16, you can see why the customer value proposition is so compelling. Across the large AI sites, the total spend with Ecolab, including CoolIT technologies, chemistry, and service, is less than 10% of the customer's annual operating cost. Yet we influence the part of the P&L that matters most: cooling. Cooling determines uptime, energy use, power availability, and the lifespan of critical equipment, and that's where we add meaningful value. Historically, about 40% of a data center's power went to cooling. Our integrated site-to-chip system, combining CDUs, cold plates, coolant quality, monitoring, and service, can shift that closer to 10%. That means operators gain significantly more usable power for AI compute without expanding their electrical footprint. In an environment where power availability is one of the biggest constraints on new capacity, this advantage is material.
By improving thermal efficiency, stabilizing the loop, lowering energy use, and shrinking the water footprint to that of a car wash. We help customers get more performance out of every megawatt. That's why the combination of Ecolab and CoolIT resonates so strongly with hyperscale operators. Bringing it all together on slide 17, CoolIT meaningfully accelerates Ecolab's growth profile. It adds more than $550 million of high-growth, high-margin revenue and lifts Ecolab total organic sales growth by about 1 percentage point at 30% margin. It strengthens Global High-Tech, now our largest and fastest-growing engine, and improves the overall quality of our portfolio. This accelerates our path towards our long-term financial targets, 5%-7% organic sales growth, more than 20% adjusted operating income margin, and 12%-15% adjusted EPS growth.
CoolIT contributes meaningfully to each part of that algorithm through faster growth, stronger margins, and sustained visible demand tied to the global AI build-out. Finally, on slide 18, CoolIT extends our proven, disciplined approach to strategic M&A. We focus on the high-return businesses that strengthen our platform and compound value over time. CoolIT fits squarely within that playbook. It's supported by visible and durable market expansion and reinforces the same model that has driven our consistent adjusted EPS compounding over time. In summary, our near plan is steady. Our long-term algorithm is strengthening, and our growth engines are compounding with Global High-Tech meaningfully enhanced by CoolIT. We couldn't be more excited about this addition. With that, we open it up for questions. Andy?
Thanks, Christophe. That concludes our formal remarks. Operator, would you please begin the question-and-answer period?
Thank you. We'll now be conducting the question-and-answer session. We ask you please limit yourself to one question per caller so others will have a chance to participate. If you have additional questions, please rejoin the Q&A queue. If you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Let a confirmation tone indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you'd like to withdraw your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, for our first question. Thank you. The first question is from the line of Tim Mulrooney with William Blair. Please proceed with your question.
Yeah. Good morning, Christophe. I appreciate the overview there. I just have one question. With this acquisition of CoolIT, how much of your high-tech water business will be equipment sales versus consumables? You know, we typically think of Ecolab as having a core anchor and then surrounding that with services and consumables, high recurring revenue. You know, is this acquisition changing your model at all? Are you moving more towards capital equipment? Thank you.
Morning, Tim. The quick answer is absolutely not. Our recurring revenue model has been part of our winning formula, Tim, for 103 years now, and it will not change. It will never change. That's really so part of our recipe for success. When we think about it, both microelectronics and data centers are water-based businesses that are focused on the fastest growth end markets. I see it as my duty, obviously, to make sure that our main capabilities, which in that case is water, well, it's focused on the markets that are growing the most, and especially growing the most tomorrow. Both businesses, microelectronics and data centers, are water-as-a-service models that are enabled by technology. That's true in every single business of the company. We need technology in order to drive the consumables, the famous razor that require the razor blades.
The model we have is 90% recurring. It will remain 90% recurring in the future. If I unpack a little bit, in microelectronics, we are helping customers move from 5% water recycling, and it's huge amount of water as we know, to 95% water recycling. Nobody does that. We're setting outcomes, and Ovivo that we acquired in December provides the technology, this ultrapure water technology that enables it. We needed to have that technology in order to bring the water back to the system at the highest purity level, which is called in the industry, ultrapure water. CoolIT, for data center, is recurring too, but at a different frequency. Cold plates, as I've mentioned, are exchanged at every new chips generation change.
Every time that NVIDIA comes with something new, well, they need to change the chips. They need to change the cold plates. They need to change the coolant as well. The CDUs are switched when cooling power goes up, as compute power goes up, and it goes very quickly up as we know. In data centers, our growth is mostly driven by data usage and new chips generations from the likes of NVIDIA. It's important to keep that in mind. Obviously, new data centers accelerate the growth, but our main focus is making sure that the current data centers, as they're refurbished with the new generations of chips, are liquid cooled as well with the right CDUs. You have recurring revenue as well, both on cold plates and on CDUs, a bit at a different frequency.
It's not happening every day, but it's a matter of months or quarters. The CDUs are like the dishwasher in a restaurant. It's the main dispenser and control unit which all other services are anchored around. The good news is that there's up to 100 in one data center. Bottom line, our 90% recurring business doesn't change and will not change.
Our next question is from the line of Manav Patnaik with Barclays. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, good morning. This is Ronan Kennedy on for Manav. Thank you for taking my question.
Good morning, Ronan.
Good morning, Christophe. Thank you. As a follow-up to Tim's question, Christophe, your response, in relation to the 98% historical revenue model that mostly avoided direct sales and manufacturing the heavy equipment in favor of leasing anchor machines. What gives you confidence in Ecolab successfully managing and scaling a highly technical, fast-paced server design and manufacturing operation? And given that it generates revenue primarily through upfront sale of that complex liquid cooling systems like CDUs and cold plates, is there a roadmap and timeline for transitioning into recurring razor blade and razor revenue streams?
Ronan, it's a bit of a similar question, obviously, as what Tim was asking. I'm not going to repeat obviously the same. Our model has been 90% recurring and will remain 90% recurring. To close those loops, being in a microelectronics fab to reuse and recycle water, well, you need upfront technology. In order to get the direct-to-chip liquid cooling system in a data center, you need additional technology as well. As mentioned before, the cold plates are changing every time you change the chips, which is related to every time you hear, obviously, NVIDIA announcing their new chips. The very good news is that it's happening to the older data center.
Only 5% of the data centers today use direct-to-chip liquid cooling because that's the newest technology for the future, obviously. You still have 95% of the data centers out there that are gonna have to retrofit to the newer technology of chips. That means new consumables as the cold plates and the CDUs that come in. When it accelerates again in terms of compute power, well, you need different cold plates, new, coolant, new CDUs, as well in there. You can see that recurring theme. Coming back for old data centers as well as for the new ones, so different approach. The good thing is that we're not depending on the number of data centers that are being built because there's so much work that can be done on the existing data centers as well to that.
Which is a huge advantage when people are thinking about, well, how much investments are truly gonna happen in new data centers. Well, we have 95% of the data centers out there that still need to be retrofitted because they will need the hyperscalers and colocators. More power, which means more cooling, which means more cold plates, new cold plates, new CDUs, as well at the same time. To your question, Ronan, on the technology, I feel really good. We have thousands of engineers in our company. We've demonstrated that we can master high-tech technology in every single of our businesses. Think about even so Pest Elimination, moving to Pest Intelligence. It's been a remarkable technological move that's been done in 18 months.
Now we have thousands, hundreds of thousands going towards a million devices in the Pest Elimination group as well. It's happening as we speak, and it's driving great results. This is true in Life Sciences as well. This is true in Ecolab Digital. This is true in F&B as well, with all the new systems that we're bringing as well, so to life. Investing in new technology allows us to increase our modes, increase our growth, increase our margins, and increasing the stickiness as well, so with customers for all the right reasons, because it's driving better performance to them. I feel really good with where we're going, both in terms of model and in our ability so to stay ahead of technology.
Our next question is from the line of Ashish Sabadra with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.
Thanks for taking my question, and congrats on the acquisition. My question is on revenue synergies. Can you talk about the opportunity, to cross-sell both Ecolab's core offering, the consumables and 3D TRASAR into the, CoolIT customer base and the other way around? How does that improve CoolIT's competitive positioning? Right now, it's the number three player. How can it further improve its competitive positioning plus, revenue synergies? Thanks.
Good morning, Ashish, and thank you. Synergies are quite significant in that case, because it's true when we think about individual offering like the CDU, and I'll go back to that, and how we integrate the overall system as well, so together. As I shared early on, Ashish, the CDUs that CoolIT is providing are the most advanced that are available out there. They have great technology as well to stay ahead of that curve. They don't have the 3D TRASAR monitoring technology, which is something that we've practiced for 30 years now, which is enabling any piece of technology to stay connected with the liquid fluid that's being managed, and making sure that the system is running at optimum performance.
Well, we're gonna bring together the CDU technology, and the scale of manufacturing at high-quality standards that CoolIT has demonstrated, in the past few years, together with the 3D TRASAR technology in order to create the next generation, of CDUs to make them really differentiated to what competition out there can provide. As you know, with 3D TRASAR, we can connect every element within the system, in that case, the cooling system in a data center, in order to optimize the overall cooling performance of the data center, and no one does that today. That's the first component is the individual offering, and especially around the CDU, which is 2/3 of CoolIT's revenue.
The second one, which is the most important one, is when we get together, we become an end-to-end provider of cooling technology. It's not individual offerings, so within the data center, it's an end-to-end offering of a closed-loop liquid cooling system with coolants, with services, with recurring revenue, everything that I shared as well early on. The most important news in here is when we add CoolIT to our existing offering, it multiplies the opportunity for Ecolab 3x-5x what we sell today.
Being able to bring CoolIT to the data centers that we serve today as Ecolab, and it's over 1,000 already today, and the same, the other direction, obviously, so bringing Ecolab in the data centers where CoolIT is present, that's driving a lot of very natural synergies, which is a very natural Ecolab approach when we think about synergies when we acquire a new business as well. Overall, a very unique story that's helping CoolIT leverage the scope of Ecolab, and Ecolab, so leveraging obviously. The customer scope of CoolIT. Last thing is ultimately, it's an Ecolab model. It's less than 10% of the overall spend annual OpEx of the data center that's impacting almost half of the overall cost, which is total value delivered at its best, which is what we've been doing for a very long time.
Our next question is from the line of John McNulty with BMO Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.
Yeah, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. So it sounds like a lot of the longer-term future value of this is really gonna be coming together and putting the two assets together where you've got a fully closed loop system. I guess, how long before you feel like you've got or how long will it take to get a fully integrated product where 3D TRASAR is fully looped into the CDU system, and you can kind of offer a full one-stop shop approach? Is that something that can be done in the, whatever, the first 9-12 months? Does it take a few years to kinda get that rolling? I guess, how should we be thinking about that?
It's gonna evolve over time, and it's never really gonna stop, John. The good thing is that before we announced the acquisition of CoolIT, we had already launched our service that we call Cooling as a Service, which is a very sort of Ecolab way of selling a service that's driving committed outcome of cooling at certain cost preference and reduced water footprint. This is something that we have already launched, so that exists. We had our own CDU as part of it as well. Now we're adding obviously a huge capability, so from CoolIT to come behind our CDU offering, and we add the cold plate to it, which makes the system even more comprehensive. We're talking about quarters or 1-2 years in front of us.
We're not talking about a very long-term development here. 80% of the work is already done. Getting together will make it even stronger. This is really what attracted the two teams because basically CoolIT needed what we can provide, and we needed what CoolIT can provide, which is really sort of CDU and cold plates at scale that we plug together and provide our customers with this committed value of more cooling or less power for more cooling, which means more compute, which means better cost per data and reduced water usage as well. It's gonna happen as we speak in the next few quarters and the next two years. A lot of game-changing offerings that will be coming on the market.
Our next question is in the line of Seth Weber with BNP Paribas. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, good morning. Just given the rapid growth at CoolIT, can you just talk about where that company's at from a capacity perspective and whether you think this addition will require additional CapEx or just how you're thinking about the Ecolab CapEx model going forward? Thank you.
Thank you, Seth. The Ecolab CapEx model will not change. What you've seen so far will remain. That's really something that we really liked and CoolIT compared to its peers, without naming them, is in the same swim lane, so no surprise on that side. Now, in terms of capacity, obviously, mid to longer term, considering all the growth that that industry is on, will require investment as we grow. That's pay as you grow, which is very Ecolab-like type of model. Now, back to short term, CoolIT has the capacity today to double again their sales, which is actually a very reassuring place to be. At the same time, they're working as well with partners, manufacturers in Asia.
We do too, as Ecolab, which means that when we bring together CoolIT's capabilities and capacity with Ecolab capabilities and capacity, well, it makes that situation even better. No constraint, short term. We feel good about where we're going. For the next few years, we'll keep building capacity and capability as we think a little bit more down the road. It will be a mix between what we manufacture ourselves that we absolutely wanna protect and what is something that we can let produce by someone else under our own design. This is something that we've done as a company for a very long time. Take dish machines, we have hundreds of thousands of dish machines out there. Well, we don't produce any, but the design and the IP is ours.
It's gonna be a similar idea as we go forward with iTek and CoolIT.
The next question is from the line of Andrew with Baird. Please proceed with your question.
Excuse me. Great. Thanks for taking my question. I guess kind of a two-parter here. I guess just for context here, Christophe, could you just talk about what the trailing twelve revenue was here? Maybe how the backlog compares of orders compares like this today versus its size last year at this time? Just for some context as what's been happening here in the recent term. I just thought maybe it'd be helpful for you to comment on how your two companies have worked together so far to this point. Obviously, there's been a lot of integration that's been done by someone else, and that's the opportunity for you. But I'm just wondering what familiarity or any integration that you've had to do that maybe gotten you to this point with this company already, if any. Thank you.
Hey, great question. Thank you, Andy. Two questions, as you said. The past trajectory is similar to the future trajectory, which is not too surprising, and in a typical Ecolab manner, obviously. We're projecting the trajectory for the future in realistic ways. It might well be better slash much better than that. We will see. When we look at the past, we look at where they are exactly today, how 2026 looks like. We feel very comfortable. That leads to your question as well of the backlog that covers the majority of 2026 is supposed to be delivering as well. We feel very good about 2026. They feel very good.
We spend a lot of time together to really understand what was in the pipeline. We're very familiar with that type of approach, obviously. We feel good. When we look down the road, for 2027 and beyond, actually it's even better. The fact that we get together will open obviously the synergies I was mentioning to Ashish a little bit earlier as well. Now to the second part of your question, the relationship between the two companies. We've been connecting for quite a while together even before they were on the market because obviously our people were familiar with them.
We were trying to get to know each other, to learn from each other, to understand what's out there, what are the capabilities that we will need, what are the opportunities that are out there. It's actually the more we were talking together, the more that we realized we made for each other because CoolIT is 100% data center liquid cooling technology company. There's none out there that was existing. Two-thirds in CDUs, 1/3 in cold plate, exactly the mix that we were looking for. Half in North America, third in Europe, 20% in Asia. The geographic footprint that is aligned with the investments of data center as well at the same time. Most importantly, the best quality and technology that was out there.
The teams really had pleasure working together, and that's how it accelerated ultimately. The process of thinking, of getting together, at some point, it obviously attracted a lot of others, on our path, but ultimately we ended up exactly where we wanted to be when we started to get to know each other.
The next question is from the line of Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, good morning. This is Steve Haynes on for Vincent. Wanted to ask a question about the guidance for the full year. I understand that you're reiterating it ex the acquisition, but maybe you could just give a bit more color on what you've assumed for pricing raws and if there's any change to the kind of cadence of the second quarter through the fourth quarter versus your prior outlook. Thank you.
Thank you, Steve. I'll pass it to Scott first, and then, I'll make a few comments if needed.
Thanks, Christophe. Yeah, Steve. Excluding CoolIT just to set the baseline, there's no change to our 12%-15% growth for the full year. Obviously, given what's happening in the world, we're overcoming significant DPC inflation in doing that with the surcharge, which we announced effective April 1, but also just generating growth to our One Ecolab performance. Specific to CoolIT, obviously dependent on timing of close. We've said we expect it to close in the third quarter. With the CoolIT financing costs, we expect a low- to mid-single-digit drag on the overall 2026 EPS relative to the 12%-15% I mentioned before. Okay?
All in, we expect CoolIT and with the amortization, we still expect both the impact to CoolIT and then deal amortization next year. We expect the 2027 to remain in that 12%-15% growth scenario. Really, sort of a perfect timing for us. Ultimately, as Christophe mentioned before, we think CoolIT strengthens the overall long-term EPS algorithm. As you think about it, this is adding 1% of sales growth to overall Ecolab, and it's at a 30% EBITDA margin.
Maybe a few additional comments here in my role here looking at 2026. It's one of those years as well, where we spend a lot of time planning for our delivery of the coming year. Well, the delivery plan is quite different than what we had expected. That's been true for the past many years for all of us obviously on this planet. We've gotten very used to doing great plans that do not happen as planned, but that doesn't compromise the outcome, the delivery. The path to get there changes obviously because the environment has changed. I'm looking at our team and saying, "Okay, we've been here before. We have two options.
One is to step back, sit back, observe what's happening and becoming more cautious." My approach here is to say, "This is an Ecolab moment. This is an exact time where customers need us more than ever in order to ensure their operations, that we can supply them all the time, that we can help them so get their productivity as well up in a difficult environment." This is an Ecolab moment. This is a moment where I want the whole organization to gain share, to bring innovation, and to acquire new capabilities for growth in the future.
That's why what we did with Ovivo in December, what we're doing with CoolIT today is all in that spirit of saying, "This is a great opportunity, so for Ecolab, and we won't miss that opportunity, so to get there." Feel pretty good for 2026 with everything we know now. Okay, we'll see what we learn obviously in next few days, weeks, months, but we're very agile as an organization, and we've demonstrated that year in and year out. I feel really good for 2026, and I feel even better for 2027 with the growth engines that we're building and how we're strengthening our core business at the same time.
The next question comes from the line of Patrick Cunningham with Citi. Please just give your question.
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. It seems the interest expense to fund this deal is higher than the EBITDA contribution, at least initially. How should we think about, you know, sensitivity and level of risk tolerance, you know, in order to achieve 2x leverage by the end of year two, you know, given there could be some potential fluctuations in the broader AI investment cycle?
Morning, Patrick. I'll pass it over to Scott, our CFO here.
Yeah, Patrick, I'll just talk on the interest itself. As you know, we've talked about for the year, our interest expense coming into the year is about $290 million. This will add about $260 million, but given the strong growth and the strong margins of the business, and you add on top of that just the strong cash generation we have as an Ecolab business, we feel very good about getting to that 2x within 24 months. The peak leverage after close is gonna be around 3x, as I think Christophe mentioned earlier. Given that strong cash generation model, given our strong balance sheet, which is in great shape, we feel very good about delivering that leverage back to about 2x in two years.
If you just consider what we did in the past with previous acquisitions, we've practiced that very well. We take it very seriously, getting back to two as quickly as we can, which means just a few years is something we demonstrated in the past. We know how to do it. We have the right cash flow as well, so to do it. This is the beauty of the Ecolab model, and we will not diverge from our commitment to get back to two in a very short period of time.
The next question is from the line of David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank. Please just give us your question.
Thank you. Good morning. Christophe, post CoolIT and Ovivo, are there other technologies you'd be looking at to possibly add to the Global High-Tech platform? Secondly, is the potential at some point to have Global High-Tech be its own segment in the reporting structure of Ecolab? Thank you.
Thank you, David. Two very different questions, obviously. Starting with the first one, the second, you might stress a little bit our science team that loves having new reporting segments. Maybe starting with the second might be easier. The reporting segment, we're trying to give you as much transparency as we allowed to, obviously from an accounting perspective, around our growth engines in general and Global High-Tech, as well. More specifically, GHT, Global High-Tech, is an operating segment within our reported segment Water, already today. We're gonna keep building on that and give you as much transparency as we can. That's been our approach, our philosophy, and our practice, and we will keep doing that, always more, as well going forward.
More to come here, but as much transparency as we can, as we've always done. Your first question, in terms of our acquisitions, I guess with CoolIT and with Ovivo, I think we are in the exact right place for us. We wanted to really build scale on how chips are being produced, which are produced in water. As you know, we wanted to have those water capabilities in data centers where chips need to be cooled. Well, we created the critical mass that we needed in data centers with CoolIT. There's a third component that we're not talking about here is how do you power obviously the chips. We have a very strong presence in the power industry.
Interestingly enough, so has been growing the past few years between 0 and 0.5%. It's expected to grow 10 times that growth rate, which means 5%, in the many years to come, starting right now, by the way. Well, this is why our power business, which is not in high-tech, is obviously benefiting as well, so from that AI drive, which is a very good thing. In short, we feel that we have what we need right now, so with CoolIT and with Ovivo. We will keep working with partners out there to really be at the center of this ecosystem, to really own water as a service for our customers. That's gonna be true in microelectronics, the fabs, and that's gonna be true for data centers as well.
For the most part, we have what we needed in both those segments.
The next question is from the line of Shlomo Rosenbaum with Stifel. Please proceed with your question.
Hi. Thank you very much for taking my question. Hey, Christophe, I understand the future positioning with the 3D TRASAR together with the CoolIT. What I'm trying to understand is the positioning of the business right now within the market versus the other two larger competitors. What is unique about CoolIT? What do they do that other ones don't do? Or does everyone have kind of a similar type of technology and they're all kind of growing with the market growth?
Morning, Shlomo. Well, generally, as mentioned before, it's a new technology for data centers, that's been brought to the market just a few years back. We're talking about 2-3 years here. It's not that long ago that that technology truly took off in the data center world. There is room for plenty of players, obviously out there because every supply that's out there gets taken by the customers, the hyperscalers, and the collocators, as well at the same time. Plenty of room to grow for the few players that you mentioned as well before. What I really like in CoolIT and second in the combination of the two companies.
First on CoolIT. As mentioned before, it's a pure play cooling data center business. That's the only one out there. That's all they do. It's 2/3 CDUs. It's 1/3 in-rack cold plates. It's exactly the right mix, exactly the right geographic presence, as I mentioned, as well, before. That's all they do. They have those relationships with the chip designers and manufacturers, as well as the hyperscalers to know what's to come to design together with them. They have great testing capabilities that most don't have at that scale and that we certainly, Ecolab, do not have, as well today. It's kind of the best property out there, the best asset.
That's why for me, when I was looking at what was out there, well, it was, well, a half the price of others, out there, higher quality, higher growth opportunity, a pure play at a higher return. That was pretty easy, for us and for me to say, "This is the one, we need because it's exactly, the right balance, for us and for our customers." That's when I look just, CoolIT. When I compare, Ecolab plus CoolIT compared to the other, one or two guys, that you're mentioning out there, the other ones are product companies. They sell products, they sell most of it through distribution, as well.
It's like electric supplies type of companies doing very well, different model. This is not the way Ecolab sort of runs business because we are driven by outcomes that we commit to, and then so we get this revenue model with consumables that we provide to our customers. We've seen that in many of our businesses. Most of our competitors are product companies in most of the other segments that we serve. Well, we're not. We're outcome-driven with a recurring service model to deliver that outcome. That's exactly what we're planning to do as soon as we close, obviously. With Cool IT, it's to strengthen this Cooling as a Service offering for our customers that's bringing all the aspects, all the products, bringing all together through 3D TRASAR and having service capabilities on the ground in those data centers anywhere around the world.
Competition does not have service people going to data centers as well. I think that the differentiation is gonna be pretty strong compared to the other two.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of John Roberts with the Mizuho Securities. Please proceed with your question.
Thank you. This is Edwin Rodriguez for John. I mean, Christophe, technology keeps changing. I mean, now it's direct-to-chip, but this may not be the future of data center cooling. I mean, single-phase immersion cooling seems to be the next, you know, leap. Like, how confident are you that CoolIT is future-proof?
Future-proof is always depending on your ability to keep innovating out there. This is true in all of our businesses, obviously. When I think about Pest Intelligence, when I think about Life Sciences, when I think about Institutional, when I think about F&B, it's always been driven by innovation. That's why as a company, when we launched our mega innovation program five years ago, you've seen some of those during Investor Day as well last year. Well, I feel much better today with all that breakthrough innovation portfolio that we have and that we're strengthening for the future because it's allowing us in each of our businesses to stay at the forefront of what's required, obviously, by each of those customers in each of those industry segments.
This is something that is true for most of the segments that we're serving. This one is more extreme. It's growing fast. Technology is moving really fast as well. This is something I really like because this is good ultimately for that industry. This is even better for the overall company because that mindset of innovating in big leaps and really fast, well, is exactly something I'd like to have for every other segment of our organization. It's gonna help us indirectly for the overall company, as well at the same time. Back to your practical question. As mentioned before, liquid cooling is in 5% of the data centers today, which means 95% do not have. Think about so shifting those 95% towards liquid cooling. Well, that's gonna provide a pretty long runway out there.
Thinking about the next generation of cooling with two phases, for instance. Well, we're thinking about this one. Don't forget that Ecolab is the leading cooling company in the world. We've done that for 80 years. So that's something that's very familiar. We have the physical capabilities, we have the scientific capabilities, we have the digital capabilities, and most importantly, we have thousands of scientists and engineers that are doing that every single day. If there is one company that understands cooling, well, this is Ecolab. We've done that for nuclear plants to hotels to data centers as we are talking today. It's the same physics, obviously here. So feeling good about what we can do here. Where it's gonna go?
Well, the fact that we're very close together with CoolIT, with the chip designers and the chip manufacturers, you know that those two are separate, usually, is helping us understand what do they need? What can we provide? That's gonna happen so years down the road. Well, this is the power of innovation. This is exactly what I like, and this is exactly what we're good at, as well. Liquid cooling is, for sure, the next generation of cooling solutions for the years to come, and we keep thinking about what's coming next after that, as we've always done in every single other business too.
Thank you. We're nearing the end of our question -and-a nswer session. There's time for one final question, which will be from the line of Jason Haas with Wells Fargo. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, good morning, and thanks for squeezing me in. I wanted to take a step back and just ask a bigger picture question on the philosophy behind doing this deal. I'm curious, like, how this plus Ovivo shifts the focus and growth of Ecolab, like, over the next, you know, call it 5-10 years. Just curious, like, for how long you'd be considering doing an acquisition to get bigger in data centers like this. Thank you.
Thank you, Jason. You know, if I step back, as a company, Ecolab has always done that. That's always been our driving force is making sure that we're building new businesses that are capturing the next growth opportunity. That was true 25 years ago, with Pest Elimination. That was true more or less the same time when we started with F&B, with cleaning in place. That was true with water in 2011 when we acquired Nalco. That was true when we created Life Sciences in 2017. That was true when we created our digital business as well, so a couple of years ago, and this is true with Global High-Tech today.
It's always been a combination of affecting our core businesses for the future, making sure that the core business is doing extremely well while rebuilding new growth engines for the future. I feel really good with the fact that Nalco with CoolIT, our growth engines, you're familiar with them, with Pest Intelligence, with Global High-Tech, with Life Sciences, and with Ecolab Digital. Well, it's 25% of our sales. Having 25% of our sales that are growing double-digit at higher margins and with stronger earnings growth as well, well, it's continuously shifting our portfolio towards higher growth, higher margins businesses. This is exactly what we've done since we began as a company. We've accelerated that over the last 20 years.
We accelerated it even more in the last five years with Life Sciences, Pest Intelligence, and now so with Global High-Tech. It's a very traditional Ecolab approach of making sure that we keep shifting, obviously, so our business where the puck is. As the world's water company and knowing that water is central to AI, chips are produced in ultrapure water, chips are powered with electricity that requires a lot of water, and chips are cooled tomorrow with water technology. Well, this is an obvious place for us to invest, to own, and to be really the game-changing partner for each of those customers in those several industries.
Feel really good about this continuous shift that we've always done towards higher growth, higher margins, higher returns, higher moat, with the same model of 90% recurring revenue model that has made us successful for a very long time. It's gonna be even more the case of tomorrow because high tech, well, is the highest growth industry in the world out there with whatever risks out there. The demand of AI is gonna keep going up in a really pay-as-you-go type of approach model. For Ecolab, this is an Ecolab model. This is a water business. This is the highest growth industry. This is exactly what we need. That's why I feel really good about the strategic relevance of this deal, building those growth engines for the future.
If I step further back, well, I feel good about how it fits into our commitments to deliver our performance short and mid and long term for you, for our shareholders. The 12%-15% algorithm of earnings growth has just gotten stronger with it. We're adding 1 percentage point to the top line as well of the company at 30% margin. This is a really good thing as well, and getting to the 20% OI margin in 2027 remains absolutely unchanged as well. My eyes are clearly focused on what's next, how high can it truly go after 20%. Pieces are coming very well together in a world that's hard to predict, that's complex out there. As mentioned before, I see that as an Ecolab moment. That's where we're at our best. This is what we like.
We will capture that opportunity as we've always done in the past, and that's gonna drive higher return for shareholders as it has as well over time in the past, done as well. Thank you so much for joining us, today. A big moment, for our company, for our team. Really proud of, all the great work that our teams have done specifically for that acquisition, but more broadly in delivering a very strong 2025, starting strong in 2026 as well, and building the future as we've always done as a company. Thank you for joining us. We will see each other obviously in a month from now, for the Q1 earnings. If you have any question in between, reach out to us at any time. Thank you so much. Have a great day and stay safe. Bye everyone.
Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.