OHB’s Rocket Setback and Record Backlog Create a Tale of Two Businesses
Published on 07/30/2026 at 19:21 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The German space and defence group OHB SE is navigating sharply contrasting fortunes across its operations. While the company’s core business has never looked stronger, its majority-owned rocket venture has hit a fresh technical snag that underscores the risks inherent in commercial launch development.
The group’s order book has swelled to €3.35 billion, a record high by the company’s own reckoning. That backlog provides a sturdy foundation ahead of the half-year results due on 6 August, when investors will be watching to see how much of that pipeline converts into revenue and profit. In the first quarter, total output already climbed 15% year-on-year to €279.3 million, and the expanding order book suggests that trajectory has room to run.
Yet the picture is markedly different at Rocket Factory Augsburg, the launch-vehicle developer in which OHB holds roughly 65%. The company has been forced to dismantle its RFA ONE rocket at the SaxaVord Spaceport in Scotland after encountering technical issues, delaying the planned “hot fire” test of the first stage. The setback is a reminder that the path to commercialising homegrown launch technology remains fraught with engineering hurdles — a factor that continues to inject volatility into OHB’s share price.
Political Backing and a New Shareholder Base
The company received a notable show of political support last week when German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius visited OHB’s Bremen headquarters on 24 July. During the visit, he toured ongoing space programmes and discussed European sovereignty in space access, with OHB and the European Spaceport Company jointly welcoming his plans to expand independent German launch capabilities. For a company deeply embedded in European defence and space supply chains, such high-level engagement carries weight beyond mere symbolism.
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That political tailwind, however, is playing out against the technical drag of a recently completed capital increase. On 12 July, OHB placed 1,702,480 new shares at €300 each, raising gross proceeds of around €484 million. In a concurrent secondary placement, the private equity firm KKR, through its Orchid Lux HoldCo vehicle, sold approximately 1.4 million existing shares to international investors. The free float consequently rose to roughly 26%, broadening the shareholder base and improving the stock’s liquidity profile — though the additional supply of paper has weighed on the share price in the near term.
The stock closed at €235.00 on Wednesday, up 1.73% on the day and edging back towards its 200-day moving average, from which it sits just 3.46% below. That modest recovery masks a steeper decline over the past month: the shares have fallen 16.73% in 30 days and trade well below their 50-day average of €348.46. The Relative Strength Index of 31.5 points to oversold conditions, which automated trading models often interpret as a signal that a technical bounce may be due. Still, the stock remains up 97.44% year-to-date — a reminder of the dramatic rally that preceded the current consolidation.
Board Changes and Strategic Firepower
The company has also been active on the governance front. The annual general meeting in early June approved a dividend of €0.60 per share for the 2025 financial year and elected Theodor Weimer, the former chief executive of Deutsche Börse, to the supervisory board for a three-year term. Weimer replaces Claire Wellby. Separately, a new chief operating officer took up his post on 1 July, tasked with overseeing the operational scaling of the group’s major projects.
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Shareholders also authorised a new financing framework for convertible and warrant-linked bonds of up to €1.2 billion, valid until 2031. That gives OHB considerable financial flexibility for future investments without needing to tap equity markets again in the near term. Strategically, the company has also forged a partnership with Schwarz Digits, the IT arm of the Schwarz Group, announced at the end of June to coincide with OHB’s 45th anniversary. The collaboration is aimed at deploying artificial intelligence in industrial-scale satellite manufacturing.
What Lies Ahead
With the half-year report due on 6 August, investors will be scrutinising how the record order book translates into hard financials and whether the troubles at Rocket Factory Augsburg leave any mark on the group’s consolidated accounts. The interplay between a strengthening core business, fresh equity on the balance sheet, and technical setbacks in the rocket division is likely to keep the stock choppy in the weeks ahead. A further opportunity for management to present its case to institutional investors comes at the Berenberg & Goldman Sachs German Corporate Conference on 21 September. For now, OHB remains a study in contrasts — a company with a rock-solid order pipeline and political backing, yet one whose share price is still digesting the aftershocks of a major capital event and the unpredictable rhythms of rocket science.
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