Saturday April 24th 2021
KKR throws shares on the market
Italian investors buy Hensoldt package
The Bavarian arms company Hensoldt gets a new anchor shareholder. The Italian aerospace and defense company Leonardo takes over 25.1 percent of the shares from the US financial investor KKR. The Italians are drawing level with the federal government, which has secured a blocking minority.
The Italian armaments company Leonardo has made the race to enter the German armaments electronics manufacturer Hensoldt. The US financial investor KKR is selling a block of shares of 25.1 percent to the Italians, as announced by Hensoldt in Taufkirchen near Munich.
A sales contract was concluded about this. Leonardo pays 23 euros per share and thus a total of around 606 million euros, as the Italians announced. The authorities have yet to approve the deal.
“With this transaction we have a second long-term anchor shareholder in our company and a strong potential strategic partner with whom we are already working successfully on a number of programs,” said Hensoldt boss Thomas Müller, according to the announcement.
KKR brought Hensoldt to the stock exchange in September 2020 for 12 euros per share and sold a blocking minority of 25.1 percent to the federal government at the end of March. Germany got involved in Hensoldt because the company also supplies key technologies from the fields of crypto technology and sensor technology, which the federal government wants to prevent unwanted access. Hensoldt is the former radar division of the aerospace company Airbus, which KKR took over in 2017.
After the sale of shares in the federally owned KfW Bank and in Leonardo, KKR will still hold a share of around 18 percent in Hensoldt, said von Hensoldt. Leonardo expects to be able to complete the share purchase in the second half of the year. With the bid, other interested parties such as the European arms companies Thales (France), Saab (Sweden) and Indra (Spain) are left empty-handed.
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