PARIS — Czechoslovak Group, the Prague-based maker of Tatra military vehicles and one of Europe’s largest ammunition manufacturers, plans to seek a stock-market listing in coming weeks as the company looks to boost international visibility and secure funding for future growth.
The company expects to sell €750 million ($874 million) of new shares, with current shareholder CSG FIN to divest a yet-to-be determined amount of existing shares, CSG said in an emailed statement on Wednesday. The family-owned defense firm is seeking a valuation of about €30 billion, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the deal.
CSG’s planned initial public offering comes less than a month after KNDS, the French-German maker of the Leopard 2 main battle tank, said it was pursuing similar plans. Europe’s publicly traded defense companies have benefited from surging valuations on the back of record European defense spending, helping them attract financing and employees.
“The group stands to benefit from an accelerating trend of global defense spending,” Chairman Michal Strnad said in the statement. “We believe an IPO of CSG would elevate the profile of the group within the international investment community, providing additional financial flexibility and diversity of funding sources to support future growth.”
The company’s expertise in areas including land vehicles, weapons systems, defense electronics, as well as advanced systems for unmanned aerial vehicles and long-range missiles “is closely aligned” with the strategic priorities of customers, Strnad said.
The Czech defense firm is owned by Strnad, who will remain in charge as chairman and CEO. The company’s predecessor was founded in 1995 as Excalibur Army by Jaroslav Strnad, who transferred ownership of what had by then become Czechoslovak Group to his son Michal in 2018.
CSG plans to apply for listing and trading of its shares in Amsterdam, with the share offering subject to market conditions. The company said it has received investment commitments to the tune of €900 million from Artisan Partners Global Equity Team, a number of Blackrock-managed funds as well as Qatar’s Al-Rayyan Holding.
Europe has seen several defense IPOs since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with German tank-transmission maker Renk listing its shares in February 2024, French night-vision maker Exosens doing the same in June that year, while shares in German naval shipbuilder TKMS started trading in Frankfurt in October 2025.
The STOXX Europe Targeted Defence Index, weighted for the portion of sales its constituent companies get from defense, is hovering near a record level, after rising nearly fivefold in the past three years.
CSG expects its “core addressable market” of Europe and the United Kingdom to grow more than 10% a year between 2025 and 2030. The company says it’s Europe’s second-largest supplier of medium and large-caliber ammunition, and the world’s largest small-caliber ammunition provider.
“The group expects to benefit from a defense spending supercycle, driven by increasing global uncertainty and elevated investments in defense from European and NATO governments, compared to historical levels,” the company said.
CSG reported an order backlog of €14 billion at the end of September, a 69% year-on-year increase, and nine-month revenue of €4.5 billion. The company says its 24% adjusted operating margin beats that of comparable European defense-sector peers.
Europe made up 75% of CSG’s revenue in the period, including Ukraine, which accounted for 26% of the company’s total sales.
Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.
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