KNDS Sees EBIT Surge to €661m as Dual-Listing Plans Entwine with State Stake Talks

KNDS, maker of Leopard 2 tanks and Caesar howitzers, plans dual listing as France and Germany negotiate post-IPO stakes, backed by €33.1bn orders and 15% margin.

The Franco-German tank builder KNDS is hurtling towards a dual initial public offering in Frankfurt and Paris, armed with a record €33.1bn order book and a 15% operating margin that has drawn analyst valuations of at least €20bn. But the company’s path to market is as much a diplomatic balancing act as a financial one, with Berlin and Paris jockeying over their respective stakes.

Revenue rose 15.9% to €4.4bn in 2025, while earnings before interest and tax jumped 32% to €661m. The margin improvement from 13.2% to 15.0% was driven by higher-margin export contracts and tighter operational efficiency, the company said. New orders worth €13.5bn poured in during the year, swelling the backlog from €23.5bn at the end of 2024. European and NATO members, accelerating procurement cycles and rebuilding tank fleets, have turned KNDS into a direct beneficiary of the continent’s military build-up.

The Leopard 2 main battle tank and Caesar howitzer, both deployed in Ukraine, are at the heart of that surge. KNDS supplies more than 40 armed forces globally.

State Stake Chess Game

Behind the IPO lies a delicate ownership structure. Currently, the French state and the German owners of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann each hold 50%. Both sides intend to reduce their holdings after the listing, but the precise blueprint is still being hammered out. The German government is negotiating an initial 40% stake, which would then be trimmed to around 30% within two to three years. France plans a parallel reduction to 40%, with the aim of maintaining strategic parity between the two nations.

CEO Jean-Paul Alary confirmed that IPO preparations are proceeding on schedule. A dual listing on the Frankfurt and Paris exchanges is intended to give the company broader access to capital markets to fund investments in production capacity, technology and research. Global investment banks are already coordinating the listings, though the final timetable hinges on market conditions and the outcome of the state-level conversations.

Pre-IPO Housekeeping

KNDS has been tidying up its balance sheet ahead of the flotation. In a separate move, it sold around 5.8m shares in gearbox manufacturer Renk Group for roughly €262m, reducing its holding to about ten percent. That transaction, expected to close by 22 May 2026, frees up cash while simplifying the group’s structure.

On the operational side, the workforce expanded 7.3% to roughly 11,000 employees, with further hiring planned for 2026. The company is investing heavily in manufacturing and assembly lines to ramp up output and develop next-generation platforms.

Broader Defence Landscape

While KNDS focuses on its own IPO, the wider European defence M&A scene remains active. Italy’s Leonardo recently completed the €1.6bn acquisition of Iveco Group’s defence business, including the IDV and ASTRA brands – a deal that had previously seen KNDS rumoured as a potential suitor. For now, the tank builder is concentrating on its own capital market debut.

When the shares finally start trading depends on how quickly Berlin and Paris can wrap up their stake negotiations – and whether the geopolitical winds that have filled KNDS’s order books continue to blow in its favour.