Schneider Electric is preparing to buy Bulgarian Shelly for €1.2 billion: why the energy giant wants a smart home device manufacturer

French energy technology giant Schneider Electric intends to gain control of Shelly Group — a fast-growing Bulgarian manufacturer of smart home devices and software solutions. The company is ready to offer €70 in cash for each Shelly share, valuing the business at approximately €1.2 billion.

For Schneider Electric, this is not just the purchase of another electronics manufacturer. Shelly is building a platform that allows controlling lighting, household appliances, energy consumption and building automation via smartphone, computer or third-party systems. It is precisely the connection between smart home and energy management that makes the company especially interesting for one of the world's largest players in electrification and automation.

But the deal is not closed yet. On September 24, Shelly Group signed an investment agreement with a subsidiary of Schneider Electric, defining the terms of the future voluntary tender offer to shareholders. The public offer itself still has to go through a regulatory procedure.

€70 offered for each Shelly share

Schneider Electric plans to pay €70 in cash for one Shelly Group share.

At this price, the entire company is valued at approximately €1.2 billion.

The offer price is 27% above the so-called unaffected reference price of the share on July 28 — the last trading day before rumors of a possible deal appeared on the market.

Compared with the estimated reference price on September 23, the premium is about 22%.

After the deal was announced, Shelly shares on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange rose by about 4%, moving closer to the price of the future offer.

What is Shelly and why is someone willing to pay more than a billion euros for it

Shelly Group is based in Sofia and works in the Internet of Things (IoT), home and small building automation, and energy consumption management.

Its devices allow remote switching on and off of electrical appliances, automate lighting and other systems, monitor electricity consumption and unite equipment into a single smart home system.

One of Shelly's distinctive features is its focus on compatibility. Devices can work not only through the company's own cloud platform, but also integrate with third-party home automation systems.

In recent years, Shelly has gradually transformed from a manufacturer of connected devices into a company that tries to earn simultaneously from hardware, software, cloud services and its own ecosystem.

The company operates in more than 100 markets and is developing a network of professional installers.

Shelly's business is growing rapidly

The high valuation of the deal is also explained by the company's own momentum.

In the first six months of 2026, Shelly's revenue grew by 26.5% to €68.3 million.

Operating profit EBIT increased even faster — by 45.6%, to €17.7 million. Net profit grew by 51.4%, to €15.4 million.

The company expects revenue of €195 million to €205 million for the full year 2026 and EBIT of €47–52 million.

At the same time, Shelly's professional network is expanding: by mid-year, the number of registered installers reached approximately 8.6 thousand.

In other words, Schneider Electric is buying not only a brand of inexpensive smart home devices, but also an already profitable technology business with a rapidly growing user and professional ecosystem.

Why Schneider Electric needed Shelly

Schneider Electric's core business is related to energy management and automation — from electrical equipment for homes to systems for factories, offices and data centers.

Shelly gives the company the opportunity to go much deeper into the segment of residential houses and small commercial buildings.

An important change is happening here. Previously, smart home was often associated primarily with remote switching on of lamps, sockets or heating. Now one of the main tasks of such systems is to understand how much electricity a house consumes, when it is more profitable to turn on equipment and how to combine consumption with solar panels, batteries or other energy sources.

It is this area that Shelly calls one of the main directions of its platform: managing the consumption, generation and storage of energy together with building automation.

For Schneider Electric, this is practically a direct extension of its core business.

The smart home is turning into an electricity management system

This trend is becoming especially important as homes are being electrified.

A single building can simultaneously run a heat pump, electric vehicle charger, solar panels, battery, air conditioners and dozens of ordinary electrical appliances.

The more of such devices there are, the more important becomes the ability to automatically distribute the load and understand the real energy consumption.

For Schneider Electric, the acquisition of Shelly may provide a ready-made consumer platform and a large number of devices already installed in homes.

For Shelly, in turn, Schneider offers a global sales network, resources and experience in working with energy management systems.

In the company's official announcement they explicitly refer to this combination: the technological platform and Shelly's closeness to the user are planned to be combined with Schneider Electric's global presence and energy expertise.

Shelly's founders control about 57% of the company

The probability of the deal is increased by the position of Shelly's two founders.

Dimitar Dimitrov and Svetlin Todorov together control about 57% of the company's shares and support the transaction proposed by Schneider Electric.

Dimitrov, who owns about 29% of Shelly, announced his intention to tender his shares if the offer is officially made. At the same time, he plans to reinvest part of the proceeds alongside Schneider Electric.

It is expected that Dimitrov will remain one of Shelly's managers together with the current Co-CEO Wolfgang Kirsch.

Todorov controls about 28% of the shares directly and through Salisto Holdings. He has agreed to sell his stake in two stages. Sale of the main part also depends on regulatory approvals.

Schneider wants to acquire at least 95% of the shares

The deal has an important condition: after completion of the offer Schneider Electric must directly or indirectly control at least 95% of Shelly's capital.

If this threshold is reached and the other conditions are fulfilled, Schneider intends to proceed to full ownership of the company.

The next step may potentially be Shelly's delisting from the stock exchange.

Currently, the company's shares are traded on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange and in Frankfurt, and Shelly itself is included in the German SDAX index of small-cap companies.

The deal is not yet closed

Despite the support of the management and founders, it is still too early to speak of a completed sale of Shelly.

At the time of the announcement, the official offer to shareholders had not yet been registered and published.

The documents must undergo review by Bulgaria's Financial Supervision Commission. After regulatory clearance, the official offer document will be published, and the Shelly board of directors will issue a statement to shareholders as required by law.

Furthermore, other regulatory approvals are necessary, as well as reaching the minimum acceptance threshold of the offer at 95%.

If all conditions are met, closing is expected no later than the first quarter of 2027.

What will happen to Shelly after a potential sale

Schneider Electric does not plan to immediately dissolve Shelly within its structure.

According to the signed agreement, the company intends to keep Shelly's headquarters in Bulgaria, its existing scope of operations and organizational structure for at least three years after the closing of the deal.

It is also planned to retain employees, including research and development teams, engineers, sales, operations and management departments.

This is important because a substantial part of Shelly's value is tied not only to existing devices, but also to development teams, software and the ability to quickly release new products.

Why the deal is interesting not only to Shelly's owners

The acquisition shows how the smart home market is changing.

Large energy companies increasingly view switches, sensors, sockets and controllers not as separate devices. They are becoming elements of a unified electricity management system.

If Schneider Electric completes the deal, one of the best-known European DIY automation brands will end up inside a global company that builds energy management systems from residential homes to large industrial facilities and data centers.

For owners of Shelly devices, this does not mean immediate changes: the companies declare their intention to keep the brand, team and technology base.

But strategically, the deal could give Shelly access to significantly larger sales channels and accelerate the transition from separate smart home devices to a comprehensive energy management platform in homes and small buildings.

And it is precisely for this combination — hardware, software platform, fast-growing business and direct access to the home energy management market — that Schneider Electric is ready to pay about €1.2 billion.

Based on materials from: Shelly Group, Reuters.