PARIS — KNDS, the French-German maker of the Leopard 2 main battle tank and the Caesar wheeled howitzer, plans for a stock-market listing in 2026 in a move that the company says will help finance growth plans.
The board of directors decided to continue preparations for an initial public offering next year, subject to market conditions, KNDS said in a statement on Wednesday. The public listing will help long-term growth by expanding access to capital markets and allowing KNDS to invest in industrial capacity, technology and innovation, the Amsterdam-based company said.
Shares in Europe’s publicly traded defense companies have surged since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with the Stoxx Europe Targeted Defense index increasing fourfold in the past three years. That has benefited KNDS’s listed rivals including Rheinmetall, with a higher market capitalization facilitating debt financing, M&A deals and employee-incentive programs.
With the IPO project, “KNDS is determined to create a more agile and responsive structure to continue investing in technology, capacity and talent,” Chief Executive Officer Jean-Paul Alary said in the statement. “This project opens a new chapter in KNDS’s development as a unique European champion and global leader in land defense.”
KNDS said it appointed Christian Schulz, the former chief financial officer of tank-transmission maker Renk, to join the board of directors at the start of 2026, replacing Werner Frank. The company said Schulz will bring “valuable experience” from leading Renk’s stock listing in February 2024 and overhauling Renk’s financial structure.
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KNDS was formed in 2015 though the combination of France’s Nexter Systems and Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, with the French and German owners both holding 50% of the combined company. The French and German parts of the KNDS business remain separate for now, manufacturing and selling their own portfolio of products.
The maker of tanks, artillery, armored personnel carriers and munitions reported 2024 revenue rose 17% to €3.8 billion, compared to Rheinmetall reporting defense sales rose 50% last year.
In terms of orders, the former Nexter business, with products including the Caesar howitzer and the Griffon six-wheeled armored personnel carrier, has fallen behind the former Krauss-Maffei Wegmann business, which manufactures the Leopard 2 MBT, the PzH 2000 howitzer and the Boxer eight-wheeled APC.
The order book for KNDS France stood at €8.6 billion at the end of 2024 from €5 billion two years earlier, while KNDS Deutschland increased the backlog to €14.9 billion from €6 billion over the same period, according to annual reports filed with Germany’s lobby register.
KNDS plans to list its shares in both Frankfurt and Paris, home to the European Union’s largest stock markets by market capitalization.
“I’m happy the board has decided, after intensive work, to prepare for an IPO,” Chairman Tom Enders said. “The time is right and the company is ready.”
Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.
