Audit Deadline and State Lock Shape KNDS’s Race to a Summer IPO
23.05.2026 - 23:51:09 | boerse-global.de
KNDS has never had more work on its hands. The Leopard tank manufacturer booked €11.2 billion in new orders last year and carries a backlog exceeding €23.5 billion, alongside plans to triple production capacity. The company is even eyeing former Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen plants in Ludwigsfelde and Osnabrück to add assembly lines. Yet the path to its long-awaited initial public offering in Frankfurt remains blocked by a single document: an audit report that PricewaterhouseCoopers refuses to sign.
The accounting logjam stems from a 2013 arms sale to Qatar worth nearly €2 billion, involving Leopard tanks and howitzers. Allegations of multi-million-euro commission payments — which KNDS denies — have prompted Freshfields to conduct an internal investigation. PwC has told the company it will not certify the financial statements until that probe concludes. With no certified accounts, there can be no prospectus, and no IPO.
Berlin and Paris, meanwhile, have cemented their roles as the dominant shareholders. Germany confirmed this week it will acquire a 40% stake in KNDS through the state-owned KfW bank, matching France’s existing holding. The combined 80% state ownership leaves only around 20% of the equity — worth roughly €4 billion at the €20 billion valuation — for public investors when shares debut. Both governments have agreed to cut their positions to 30% over two to three years while retaining equal voting rights regardless of the final stake size, a structure designed to prevent the political blockades that have hampered past European defence projects.
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Tom Enders, the former Airbus chief who chairs KNDS’s supervisory board, welcomed the clarity but warned against permanent state dominance. He called the 80% arrangement a transitional solution, arguing that reducing political influence was essential to attract long-term capital market investors. The purchase price for Germany’s block is tied to the eventual IPO price, a condition Berlin is insisting upon in ongoing negotiations.
Ahead of the listing, KNDS has been tidying up its balance sheet. It placed 5.8% of its stake in Renk, the Augsburg-based transmission specialist, via an accelerated bookbuild at €45.10 per share, grossing roughly €262 million. The sale leaves KNDS with about 10% of Renk, subject to a 180-day lock-up period, and came even as Renk reported a record first-quarter order intake of over half a billion euros. Analysts viewed the move as a routine clean-up before the IPO, and existing shareholders have been promised a special dividend of up to €2 billion on top.
On the operational front, the business shows little sign of slowing. Revenue hit €3.8 billion last year, and the British Army ordered 72 remote-controlled howitzers of the RCH 155 type — a contract that will keep KNDS’s Stockport plant in England busy from 2028. The company is also trialling the takeover of the Mercedes-Benz factory in Ludwigsfelde, where around 2,000 employees could switch employers, initially renting parts of the site before an outright purchase.
The biggest variable remains the audit. If PwC gives the green light by the end of May, the window for a summer float — planned for June or July — stays open. A delay would push the listing into autumn, a period bankers consider more volatile and less favourable for a defence stock that already carries the burden of heavy state ownership. KfW is working with JPMorgan on the transaction, and the next few weeks will decide whether the IPO kicks off on schedule or slips into a trickier season.
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