OHB Reinvents Its Factory Floor as KKR Unloads a Billion Euros in Shares

Private equity giant KKR plans to offload 20% of OHB shares by June, depressing the stock but boosting free float from 6% to 26%, paving the way for institutional investors amid a record €3.35B order book.

The transformation at OHB SE is unfolding on two fronts. On the factory side, the Bremen-based space company is swapping its workshop model for industrial-scale satellite production, backed by a record €3.35 billion order book. On the market side, a brutal sell-off by its largest shareholder is depressing the stock – but also clearing the way for a more liquid, institution-friendly share register.

The immediate pain comes from private equity giant KKR, which holds a 29% stake and plans to jettison roughly 20% of OHB’s total shares by the end of June. That translates to over €1 billion in stock hitting the market. The resulting overhang has driven the shares down nearly 10% over the past seven days, closing Wednesday at €371.00 – a full 44% below the May record of €688.00. KKR intends to reduce its holding to a single-digit percentage.

The flipside of this dramatic exit is a surge in free float. Currently a mere 6% of shares trade freely, causing the stock to swing with an annualized volatility of around 147%. Once the KKR placement is completed, the free float is expected to jump to roughly 26%. Market observers view the resulting improvement in liquidity as a long-term positive, potentially smoothing out the wild price swings that have deterred institutional investors. The relative strength index stands at 46.3, and the stock trades about 5% above its 50-day moving average of €362.63 – suggesting the sell-off may be approaching a floor, though it is not yet oversold.

At the virtual annual general meeting on June 8, shareholders handed management a powerful financial toolkit. The board is now authorised to issue convertible bonds, warrants and profit participation rights totalling up to €1.2 billion by 2031. In addition, a new conditional capital increase of around 20% of the existing share capital was approved. While the record backlog of €3.35 billion – up 45% year on year – demands substantial investment, critics note the dilution risk if the full capital envelope is deployed.

OHB is simultaneously re-engineering its production base. On July 1, Dr. Luis Alejandro Orellano joins as the company’s first-ever chief operating officer, tasked with transitioning manufacturing from bespoke craftsmanship to serial assembly lines. The former Rohde & Schwarz and ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems executive will oversee the conversion of a former TechniSat plant in Schöneck into a facility dedicated to building satellite constellations such as “Saxon-1”. At the ILA Berlin air show, which opened Wednesday, OHB also unveiled a joint venture named KIRK with AI specialist Helsing, focusing on tactical reconnaissance.

The bottleneck on the stock should lift once KKR completes its placement by the end of June. After that, the market’s attention can return to the operational story – and the shares’ 200%-plus gain since the start of the year suggests investors already have faith in the new management team’s ability to deliver the industrial pivot.