Blackstone has agreed to acquire Flow Control Holdings (FCH), a Cincinnati-based provider of highly engineered flow control services and components serving data center liquid cooling, food, beverage, and pharmaceutical markets, PE Hub can reveal. Blackstone is acquiring the majority stake from Audax Private Equity, which will retain a minority equity stake. The transaction, for undisclosed terms, is expected to close in Q4.

Bilal Khan, a senior managing director at Blackstone, said data centers are becoming more energy efficient through liquid cooling architecture. FCH’s high-performance components are used by OEMs and hyperscalers for coolant distribution units, in-row manifolds, and secondary fluid networks.

Under Audax’s four-year hold, FCH completed 10 add-ons. Blackstone expects to continue inorganic growth, exploring acquisitions as there is meaningful value in being a one-stop solution. FCH also has global expansion opportunities through Blackstone’s footprint in data center investments.

Blackstone has a $185 billion data center portfolio, including assets under construction, and $190 billion in its future development pipeline. FCH represents the firm’s second liquid cooling investment this year, following Advanced Cooling Technologies.