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Shares in European ammunition maker Czechoslovak Group soared 31 per cent on its trading debut in Amsterdam on Friday, underlining investor appetite for defence stocks as Europe rushes to rebuild its military capacity.
CSG shares closed at €32.85 at the end of its first day of trading, well above an offer price of €25 a share and valuing the company at almost €33bn.
The Prague-based company, which has become one of Europe’s largest ammunition manufacturers, floated 15.2 per cent of its shares in the offering on Friday, in one of Europe’s largest listings in recent years. Artisan Partners, BlackRock and Al-Rayyan Holding — a subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority — acted as cornerstone investors, committing a total of €900mn to the initial public offering.
The deal is Amsterdam’s biggest listing of the past decade, according to Bloomberg data, and Europe’s first major IPO of 2026, which investors are hoping will be a busy year for the continent’s equity capital markets.
“The breadth of demand was extraordinary for a European IPO,” said Ashish Jhajharia, head of Emea equity capital markets at JPMorgan, who worked on the deal. “It can only be helpful for the healthy pipeline of IPOs to come this year.”
Michal Strnad, the 33-year-old billionaire chair of CSG, called the IPO a “historic milestone” for his family-owned company. He took the helm in 2018 from his father, Jaroslav, who founded CSG after trading scrap metal collected from the former Soviet bloc, in particular weapons that became surplus military stock in the 1990s. While CSG still sells refurbished T-72 Soviet tanks, its recent focus has been on supplying Ukraine and Nato allies with artillery shells and armoured vehicles since Russia’s invasion in 2022.
European defence stocks have been on a storming rally this year, and CSG is the first in a wave of defence IPOs expected in 2026, as companies aim to capitalise on high valuations.
The Franco-German tank maker KNDS and British metal engineer Doncasters Group are also preparing for IPOs, the FT reported last year.
“Defence has worked very well in the public markets and investor interest in IPOs in the sector is high, given the scarcity of listed ways to play it,” said Jhajharia.
The Stoxx Europe Aerospace and Defence index — a basket of European defence names — is up more than 10 per cent in January, adding to a 57 per cent gain in 2025. Valuations have soared, with the sub-index trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of around 36 times, compared with 17 times for the broad Stoxx Europe 600.
German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall gained 154 per cent last year, as US President Donald Trump piled pressure on European governments to shoulder the cost of their own security, prompting new spending commitments.
Nato members agreed last June to meet Trump’s demand to increase their defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP.
Before listing, Strnad indicated that he would use a significant part of its IPO money for acquisitions. Since taking over from his father, Strnad has been on a buying spree in Spain and Italy as well as the US, where CSG won a fierce takeover battle in 2024 to purchase for $2.2bn Kinetic, a small arms munitions maker whose brands include Remington.
BNP Paribas, Jefferies, JPMorgan and UniCredit were the lead banks on the CSG deal.
