Tank maker KNDS plans stock market listing, Germany to buy 40% stake
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PARIS — French-German tank builder KNDS plans to list its shares on the Paris and Frankfurt stock markets in an operation that will see existing shareholders selling about 20% of the company to institutional investors and Germany buying a 40% share.The two holding companies that currently control KNDS, French state-owned Giat Industries and German family-owned Wegmann & Co, will together sell about 20% of the company, KNDS said in a statement on Wednesday. The Federal Republic of Germany agreed with Wegmann to buy 40% of the maker of armored vehicles, while France will hang on to the remainder of its stake through Giat.France and Germany reached agreement on Monday on becoming equal shareholders in KNDS, paving the way for the company to forge ahead with plans for a stock-market listing announced in December. The operation also allows the group of German heirs that collectively own half of the company to cash out, after a surge in defense stocks following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.“The planned IPO is a natural next step for KNDS,” CEO Jean-Paul Alary said in a statement. “It will increase our strategic agility and support continued investment in capacity, innovation and next-generation technologies.”As share prices for listed defense companies have surged in recent years amid rising defense investment, Europe has seen a string of initial public offerings, including German tank-transmission maker Renk and French night-vision maker Exosens in 2024, German shipbuilder TKMS in 2025 and arms maker Czechoslovak Group, or CSG, in January this year.The STOXX Europe Targeted Defence Index, which is weighted for the portion of sales its constituent companies get from defense, has climbed sixfold in the past five years.KNDS says it targets revenue growth of around 30% in 2026, after posting sales of €4.4 billion (US$ 5 billion) and operating profit of €661 million in 2025. The company reported a record order backlog of €33.1 billion at the end of December.The Federal R