OHB Stock Hits All-Time High as KKR Trims Stake and Cartel Office Reviews Landmark Defense Deal

OHB SE hits record €343 after strong Q1 results, but KKR sells 20% stake and Rheinmetall joint venture faces regulatory review. Order backlog €3.35B.

The German space and technology group OHB SE saw its shares touch a fresh record of €343 on Tuesday, powered by first-quarter results that smashed expectations and a staggering €3.35 billion order backlog. Yet beneath the celebratory headlines lies a more nuanced picture: private equity heavyweight KKR is selling down a fifth of its stake, and a potentially transformative joint venture with Rheinmetall remains locked in regulatory limbo.

KKR has enlisted JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank to place roughly 20% of its holding in OHB, reducing its total interest from nearly 29% to just under 9%. The move is not a full exit — KKR retains a meaningful stake — but it will boost free-float liquidity ahead of the group’s capital markets update on 18 May. The founding Fuchs family continues to control 65% of the voting rights, reaffirming that a delisting is off the table for now.

The timing of the share sale coincides with a period of operational strength. Revenue in the first three months jumped 15% to €200.8 million, while adjusted EBITDA surged 37% to €27.3 million. Both figures topped analyst forecasts, and the pre-market reaction pushed the stock 6.6% higher. The record order backlog of €3.35 billion provides multi-year visibility, with the company targeting an average annual order intake of roughly €3 billion over the medium term.

A major catalyst — and a key source of uncertainty — is the planned joint venture with Rheinmetall Digital. The partnership would target SATCOMBw Stage 4, a Bundeswehr project to build a highly secure satellite communications network with an estimated total contract value in the high single-digit billions. Analysts put OHB’s potential revenue share at up to €3.3 billion. The German Federal Cartel Office is currently reviewing the deal, and no timeline for a decision has been given.

Alongside the domestic defence opportunity, OHB is pushing ahead with an international expansion. Its subsidiary OHB Space UK in Bristol plans to expand its workforce from 14 to more than 100 engineers over the next five years, supported by a new cleanroom facility that will be one of the largest in England. The first tangible fruit of that push is a multi-million-euro contract from the European Space Agency for the EnVision Venus mission, where OHB will lead the spacecraft’s test campaign.

Investors will receive more detail on the group’s strategic roadmap at the upcoming Capital Markets Update on 18 May. The annual general meeting follows on 8 June, at which a cash dividend of €0.60 per share will be put to a vote. With a record share price, a partial shareholder exit underway, and a billion-euro defence tie-up hanging in the balance, OHB is navigating one of its most eventful periods in recent history.