(Jan 20): Michal Strnad, the 33-year-old owner of Czechoslovak Group AS, is seeking to raise €2.55 billion from what is set to be the largest defence initial public offering on record.
The Prague-based armoured vehicle and munitions maker is seeking a valuation of €25 billion in the Amsterdam IPO, according to terms seen by Bloomberg. It will market shares at a fixed price of €25 per share, a company statement said.
Combined with the €750 million the company will raise, the base deal would raise €3.3 billion — that would make it the largest IPO from a defence firm on record, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Strnad could sell more shares if an overallotment option is exercised, which could raise up to €496 million.
CSG is looking to take advantage of a rally in defence stocks, which has continued at the start of this year in the wake of US actions in Venezuela and rhetoric around Greenland. A basket of European defence stocks compiled by Goldman Sachs Group Inc has more than tripled over the past two years and extended gains on Monday (Jan 19).
There was enough demand to cover the deal size within minutes of the start of order taking, terms showed. CSG is set to start trading on Friday, Jan 23, the statement showed, in what is an unusually fast timeline for a deal of its type.
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CSG’s revenues and profits have soared in the wake of the war in Ukraine, where it has been a key supplier of munitions and armoured vehicles. About a quarter of the company’s €4.49 billion in revenue in the first nine months of 2025 came from Ukraine, according to earlier company results.
That surge in revenue has allowed it to also grow the business through acquisitions, most recently through buying Kinetic Group, the US owner of small-calibre ammunition brands such as Remington and Federal, at the end of 2024.
The listing on Euronext Amsterdam is set to be Europe’s first big IPO of the year. BNP Paribas SA, Jefferies Financial Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Unicredit SpA are arranging the deal.
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