Amsterdam (Reuters) -the manufacturer of Franco-German armored vehicles KNDS should decide in the coming months if he will carry out an IPO next year, his manager Jean-Paul Alary announced on Monday.

During a press conference organized in Amsterdam, where the group’s headquarters is located, Jean-Paul Alary said he ” [avait] No decision at this stage “but that the board of directors had asked the management team to be” prepared “for a possible IPO (IPO).

Jean-Paul Alary, director general of KNDS in office since April, confirmed the existence of discussions with the German government relating to the potential acquisition of a blocking minority by Germany, and on other points which it has not disclosed.

One of the flagship projects of the Franco-German military collaboration, KNDS was trained in 2015 by bringing together the German group Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and the French Nexter. The German family shareholder of KMW and the French State are shareholders in equal parts.

Jean-Paul Alary said that the group “wanted to be European” and that an IPO could make it possible to open capital to other investors “linked to other nations in Europe”.

In February, Reuters reported that Knds was considering an IPO at the end of the year.

In mid-July, the German press had revealed that the German family Bode-Wegmann, owner of half KNDS, was planning to reduce their participation.

Asked about the identity of potential investors in KNDS, Jean-Paul Alary said that Rheinmetall did not have the “strategic alignments necessary for KNDS”, and said that Thales and Airbus were not options “to his knowledge”.

In March, the leader of Rheinmetall Armin Papperger had affirmed his intention to invest in Knds if the company entered the stock market and that an opportunity arose.

(Report by Sabine Siebold in Amsterdam, written by Florence Lève, edited by Blandine Hénault)

Copyright © 2025 Thomson Reuters