KNDS Sells Down RENK Stake for €262m as Rocket Joint Venture Wins Approval and IPO Price Battle Intensifies
26.05.2026 - 11:22:02 | boerse-global.de
KNDS is juggling multiple moving parts ahead of its planned summer flotation, and this week has brought progress on three fronts at once. The German-French defence group has cashed out part of its holding in transmission supplier RENK, secured antitrust clearance for a new rocket artillery joint venture with Elbit Systems, and stepped into a heated tug-of-war with Berlin over the price the German government will pay for a blocking minority in the company.
The RENK stake sale, executed on 22 May through an accelerated bookbuilding process, netted roughly €262m. Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs acted as joint bookrunners, with Lazard advising KNDS. The group offloaded around 5.8% of its interest in RENK, a company that supplies gearboxes for the Leopard 2 tank — KNDS’s flagship product, born from the merger of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Nexter. KNDS still holds about 10% of RENK, though a 180-day lock-up clause prevents it from selling those shares before November.
The cash injection is a clear preparatory move for the dual listing planned on the Frankfurt and Paris exchanges. Tom Enders, KNDS’s supervisory board chairman, has described the fundraising as essential to strengthening the group’s capital structure. The company stressed that the partial exit does not signal a strategic retreat; long-term cooperation with RENK’s management will continue uninterrupted.
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Separately, the Bundeskartellamt has given the green light to the EuroPULS joint venture between KNDS and Elbit Systems. The new entity, EuroPULS GmbH, will be headquartered in Kassel and market a truck-based rocket artillery system with a range of up to 300 kilometres. It combines Elbit’s PULS platform with KNDS fire-control technology, positioning itself as a European alternative to the US-made HIMARS — a system that has faced delivery delays amid surging demand driven by the war in Ukraine. The German armed forces are the anchor customer, with five launchers on order for 2027 delivery. A framework contract covering up to 500 systems is expected to receive parliamentary approval in the second half of 2026.
Alongside those operational moves, the battle over the IPO price and the state’s role is intensifying. Germany plans to take a 40% stake in KNDS via the state-owned KfW bank, mirroring the French government’s participation. But the coalition is split: the defence and finance ministries back the 40% solution, while the economy ministry and Chancellor Friedrich Merz argue that a 30% stake — equivalent to a blocking minority under Dutch law — is sufficient. The purchase price remains unresolved. Berlin wants to buy its stake at the final IPO price, but the founding family shareholders are holding out for a higher valuation. With analysts pegging KNDS’s enterprise value at between €18bn and €20bn, the German government’s entry could amount to roughly €8bn. Enders has called the 80% combined state ownership an “initial position,” adding that the public-sector share should eventually drop below 50%.
The financial calendar hinges on a single bottleneck: the audited accounts for 2025. PwC is the auditor, but an internal investigation into commission payments related to Qatar has delayed the sign-off. Without a certified annual report, the IPO cannot proceed. The target window is June or July; if that slips, September becomes the next realistic opportunity.
Operationally, KNDS is on solid ground. Revenue hit €3.8bn in 2024, the workforce numbers 11,000, and the order backlog stands at €23.5bn. A recent £1bn British order for Boxer chassis carrying the RCH 155 howitzer underlines the demand pipeline. The question, therefore, is not whether the flotation will happen, but when — and at what price the state and the founding families can shake hands.
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