OHB Taps ThyssenKrupp Veteran for COO Role as Asteroid Defense Contract Swells Backlog
11.06.2026 - 14:06:11 | boerse-global.de
OHB is making a twin bet on its future: one from the factory floor, the other from outer space.
The Bremen-based space group has appointed Dr. Luis Alejandro Orellano as its first chief operating officer, effective 1 July 2026. The move comes as the company contends with a record order backlog of €3.35 billion – a mountain of work that demands industrial-scale production rather than the project-by-project approach OHB has historically used.
Orellano arrives from ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, where he oversaw submarine and frigate programmes and led shipyard modernisation. His experience in managing complex, large-scale manufacturing is a direct fit for OHB's ambition to shift from custom craftsmanship to serial assembly.
The operational overhaul is running parallel to a string of high-profile contracts. At the ILA Berlin air show, OHB Italia signed a deal to build the hyperspectral camera HAMLET, which will sit at the heart of the ESA-JAXA RAMSES mission. The instrument is designed to analyse the surface of asteroid Apophis in infrared as the rock makes an exceptionally close flyby of Earth in April 2029. OHB chief Marco Fuchs called the contract a clear demonstration of European space capability.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying OHB SE?
The financials underscore the urgency of scaling up. In the first quarter of 2026, total output rose 15 per cent, EBITDA climbed to €27.3 million, and net profit nearly tripled to almost €10 million. The Space Systems segment alone accounts for €2.68 billion of the €3.35 billion backlog.
Shareholders gave their backing at the annual general meeting on 8 June 2026, approving all agenda items with a strong majority. The dividend was held steady at €0.60 per share, while Dr. Theodor Weimer was elected to the supervisory board for a three-year term.
The stock has been anything but steady. After touching a 52-week high of €688 in May, the shares fell sharply and recently tested the 50-day moving average at €364.49. They bounced from that level, and on the day of the COO announcement jumped nearly 4 per cent to €382.50. Year-to-date, the equity has gained between 206 and 215 per cent at various points, one of the most dramatic rallies in the German small-cap space. The annualised 30-day volatility stands at over 147 per cent.
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Whether the new industrial logic takes hold will be visible in the second-half results. For now, OHB is positioning itself to produce not just one-off spacecraft, but a steady stream of them – a transformation as ambitious as the asteroid mission itself.
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