OHB at a Crossroads: Rocket Launch, €10B Military JV, and a Billion-Euro Share Sale Collide in June
12.06.2026 - 17:34:56 | boerse-global.de
The German space and defence group OHB SE is navigating one of the most eventful periods in its recent history. Within the span of a single month, a new military satellite joint venture has been formalised, a planned €1 billion-plus share sale was scrapped at the last minute, and the countdown has begun for the first test flight of its RFA ONE rocket. Each of these milestones carries significant implications for the company’s trajectory and its stock.
The most concrete development came on 11 June, when the OHB Rheinmetall Space Networks GmbH was entered into the Bremen commercial register. The 50-50 joint venture with Rheinmetall is the anchor of the SATCOMBw Stufe 4 programme, a shielded communication architecture for the German armed forces that spans satellites, ground terminals, and a dedicated cyber operations centre. The total contract value runs to as much as €10 billion, and the venture already has its sights set on NATO partnerships. The Bundeskartellamt cleared the deal in mid-April, and management is now shared equally between Dennis Winkelmann (OHB) and Alexander Beyer (Rheinmetall).
Yet the same week that crystallised the long-term revenue stream also underscored a near-term capital markets headache. KKR, which owns roughly 29% of OHB, had scheduled a block trade on 12 June to sell its entire stake. The transaction was valued at more than €1 billion and would have boosted the free float from a mere 6% to about 26% – a liquidity lifeline for a stock that has seen annualised volatility of 149%. But SpaceX blindsided the market with IPO plans, drawing institutional capacity and investor attention away from the OHB placement. KKR pulled the deal at the last minute and now faces a hard deadline of 30 June to complete it, or risk renewed uncertainty.
On the operational side, OHB is doubling down on execution. The company has applied for a launch window starting 1 July at the SaxaVord spaceport in Scotland for the maiden flight of its RFA ONE rocket, built by subsidiary Rocket Factory Augsburg. A successful debut would validate years of development and open a new revenue line in the small-launcher segment.
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Separately, the company’s space science division is preparing for a close encounter with an asteroid. At the ILA Berlin 2026 air show, OHB Italia and Cosine Remote Sensing signed a contract for the HAMLET hyperspectral camera, which will fly aboard the ESA-JAXA RAMSES mission to study asteroid Apophis just before its close approach to Earth in April 2029. The main RAMSES probe contract, worth around €150 million, was already signed in February at ESA’s ESTEC facility.
Financially, the first quarter of 2026 showed solid momentum. Total performance rose 15% to €279.3 million, adjusted EBITDA climbed 37%, and net profit nearly tripled. The order book swelled to a record €3.35 billion, underpinning management’s target of €1.4 billion in full-year performance and a medium-term goal of exceeding €2.0 billion by 2028 with an 11% EBITDA margin.
To steer this growth, OHB appointed Dr. Luis Alejandro Orellano as its first Chief Operating Officer, effective 1 July. Orellano joins from ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, where he oversaw submarine and frigate programmes, and will take charge of operational governance as the backlog balloons.
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The stock market reaction to the military JV was initially euphoric – shares surged more than 10% on 11 June to €411.50 – before a mild consolidation on Friday pushed them back to €405.50. That still leaves the paper up roughly 235% year-to-date. Yet the share price remains about 40% below the 52-week high of €688, and the KKR overhang continues to cap enthusiasm. Shareholders also approved a dividend of €0.60 per share, with the ex-date falling on 9 June.
The next two weeks will be decisive. Between the RFA ONE launch window, the KKR placement deadline, and the early operational integration of the SATCOMBw JV, OHB is testing its capacity to juggle opportunity and uncertainty simultaneously.
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