Dhe automotive supplier and arms manufacturer Rheinmetall wants to expand its ammunition business with a takeover in Spain. The Spanish company Expal Systems is to be bought, Rheinmetall announced on Sunday in Düsseldorf. The seller is the Spanish group Maxam.
The transaction is expected to be completed by summer 2023 after antitrust and other regulatory reviews have been completed. The agreed purchase price, which is due after the transaction has been completed, is based on an enterprise value of EUR 1.2 billion.
Due to delays in the award of contracts and the political discussions about the amount of defense budgets, the company had not dared to make an annual forecast for armament orders. However, the chairman of the board, Armin Papperger, expects a particularly strong final quarter, especially in the armaments division, as is usual for the season. And things are supposed to be going well beyond that, since many countries have significantly increased their defense budgets as a result of the Ukraine war. Sales and profit targets for 2022 are also unchanged.
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For detailed view
Sales increased rapidly
The expert Sven Weier from the Swiss bank UBS recently described the results of the MDax group for the past third quarter as unspectacular. Sales rose by 12.5 percent year-on-year to EUR 1.42 billion. For January to the end of September, this results in an increase of 6.5 percent to just over four billion euros. Without the positive translation effects resulting from the weak euro, it would have been an increase of 4.5 percent. In addition to the growth in the armaments segments, business with the automotive industry also increased.
The operating result increased in the third quarter by 10.4 percent to 117 million euros. The bottom line was 86 million euros, after 77 million a year ago. The company thus pretty much met the average analyst estimates.
For 2022, Papperger continues to expect organic sales growth of around 15 percent compared to the 5.66 billion euros achieved last year. More than 11 percent of this should remain as an operating result.
