Renk Hands Finance Reins to Keblyte as UK Submarine Drive Unit Beds In

Renk's supervisory board has named Jurate Keblyte as the defence group's next chief financial officer, effective March 2027. She succeeds Anja Mänz-Siebje, who will not extend her current board contract and will hand over the finance portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2027.

The succession lands at a busy stretch for the Augsburg-based gearbox and propulsion specialist, which has just absorbed a British submarine-drive business and agreed to shed a non-core unit.

Huddersfield becomes submarine drive hub

Renk closed its purchase of David Brown Defence from Stellex Capital Management on 2 November, after all required regulatory clearances came through. The parties did not disclose the financial terms. The acquired business now trades as RENK UK Huddersfield and is earmarked to become the group's centre of competence for submarine propulsion systems. It brings with it an order backlog and pipeline spanning 2026 to 2030 that together exceed GBP 700 million.

On the divestment side, Renk signed a binding agreement on 22 October to sell its Slide Bearings division. The Huddersfield takeover was completed roughly a week before the nine-month figures were published.

Nine-month intake up a third

Those figures, released on Thursday, showed order intake of EUR 1.66 billion for the first nine months of 2026 — a jump of 33.6% year on year. The order backlog stood at EUR 7.6 billion at the end of the reporting period.

Revenue for the nine months came in at EUR 982.0 million. Adjusted EBIT rose 12.7% to EUR 158.8 million.

Management left its full-year guidance for the continuing operations untouched: revenue of around EUR 1.4 billion and adjusted EBIT of between EUR 240 million and EUR 255 million. For the fourth quarter of the same financial year, Renk expects order intake of roughly EUR 300 million to EUR 400 million.

Investors took the news in their stride, sending the shares 4.2% higher yesterday.