The company announced on Wednesday that, in the coming weeks, it intends to list new shares worth approximately €750 million on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, along with an as-yet-undetermined number of existing shares. According to insiders, the ammunition manufacturer's IPO could raise more than €3 billion in total. CSG has already secured commitments from anchor investors totaling €900 million. These include funds managed by Artisan Partners and BlackRock, as well as a subsidiary of the Qatari sovereign wealth fund QIA.
The defense sector is experiencing a boom due to Russia's attack on Ukraine and the resulting increase in defense spending by many NATO countries. Numerous companies in the industry are on a growth trajectory, and investors are snapping up shares. CSG is considered a fast-growing defense company and counts the Ukrainian military among its customers. Sole owner Michal Strnad told the Reuters news agency that he is considering selling 15 percent of the shares. Proceeds from the sale of new shares are to be used for general corporate purposes. As a publicly listed company, CSG would also be better positioned to pursue acquisitions, he has said in the past.
Other European defense companies, such as the German-French tank manufacturer KNDS—a merger of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Nexter—are also planning to go public this year. "The time is right and the company is ready," KNDS Chairman Thomas Enders recently emphasized. "In the defense sector, everyone will accelerate their IPO plans," an investment banker told Reuters.
(Reporting by Jan Lopatka and Jason Hovet, written by Matthias Inverardi, edited by Myria Mildenberger. For inquiries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)
