Franco-German arms maker KNDS has announced it is postponing a planned stock market flotation, which had been set to enable the German government to take a 40% stake in the company.
In a statement, KNDS attributed the postponement to the current “instability of the European defense sector” and said it was waiting for “more favorable market conditions”.
KNDS, which produces the German Leopard-2 and French Leclerc battle tanks among other weapon systems, is currently owned 50-50 by the French state and the German Wegmann Group.
Initial public offerings (IPOs) in Paris and Frankfurt were set to see the French government reduce its stake to 40% and the German government to take a 40% stake in Wegmans for an estimated €7.2 billion ($8.25 billion). mirror magazine. The remaining 20% was to be issued publicly.
No exact date was officially set for the IPO, but German Defense Ministry documents seen by AFP news agency suggested early July. But now the entire process has been postponed.
“KNDS and its shareholders will continue to carefully monitor capital market conditions,” a company statement said. It said it intended to “relaunch the IPO as soon as market conditions become favourable”.
KNDS: German government interested in stake
The German government said it respected the company’s decision to postpone the flotation and stressed that it remained committed to the project.
“We are interested in steering the company towards a successful future together with our French partners,” a defense ministry spokesman told AFP in Berlin on Thursday. He said the government would “continue to monitor and evaluate” the situation.
Formed in 2015 through the merger of German family-owned firm Krause-Maffei Wegmann and French state-owned arms maker Nexter, KNDS is Europe’s largest tank maker.
The company employs approximately 11,000 people and has reported revenues of €4.4 billion ($5 billion) in 2025. Its headquarters are in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and its German operations are based in Munich.
The KNDS flotation was expected to be one of the largest in the European defense sector in recent years. However, defense stocks, which soared in the wake of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine four years ago, have seen significant volatility recently.
For example, while Czech defense group CSG had a strong start with its IPO in January, the value of its shares has dropped by more than half since then.
German drone maker secures billions of dollars in funding
KNDS may view current market conditions as unfavorable, but this is not an assessment shared by German drone manufacturer Quantum Systems. The company said on Thursday it had raised $1.2 billion (€1.05 billion) in fresh funding.
The Munich-based start-up said the funding came from international investors, valuing the company at about $8 billion (€6.99 billion), nearly eight times more than a year earlier.
“In decades past, the battlefield was dominated by tanks, submarines, warships and fighter planes,” Quantum co-CEO Sven Ruck told Reuters news agency, but he said the Russian invasion of Ukraine demonstrated the growing importance of AI-controlled drones.
According to Quantum, the company’s backers include US investment management firm Blackstone and European aerospace giant Airbus.
“This shows that German defense technology companies are highly attractive to global investors,” German Economy Minister Katharina Reich said.
Regarding speculation about a potential Quantum IPO, co-CEO Florian Seibel remained cautious.
“We had an order from the supervisory board to assess our readiness for an initial public offering,” he said. “We could raise another funding round. We could go public. Or maybe we’d just continue to grow profitably.”
Siebel also dismissed recent reports of a planned merger between Quantum and Stark Defense – a startup he also co-founded – as inaccurate, but did not outright rule it out, saying: “If it makes sense, we’ll do it. If not, we won’t.”
Edited by: Shawn Sinico
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