Armor industry: Rheinmetall announces takeover deal with shipbuilers NVL known

Germany’s largest armaments group Rheinmetall has agreed with the Bremen shipyard group Lürssen to buy its military division NVL. The market leader sitting in Düsseldorf announced the allegedly billion -dollar deal on Sunday evening. “Subject to approval by the competent antitrust authorities, the parties strive for the implementation of the takeover in early 2026,” the statement said. There was silence at the purchase price, but given the billions in sales of both companies, a huge sum should flow to the Lürssen owners.

With the acquisition of the shipbuilter, Rheinmetall would like to position itself wider and open up the marine area as an additional business area. So far, the group has not built its own ships, but does business with the navy, for example with ship guns and with laser modules. Since the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, the company’s stock market course has been exposed. Rheinmetall is one of the most important arms suppliers of Ukraine, this weapon aid is partially paid for by the federal government.

NVL operates four shipyards in Germany

The private shipyard group Lürssen has been divided into the marine division Naval Vessels Lürssen (NVL) since October 2021 and into a yacht division. NVL specializes in the construction and manufacture of naval and authority ships for German navy and customers worldwide. In Germany, four shipyards belong to NVL: the Peene-Werft in Wolgast (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), parts of Blohm+Voss and the Norderwerft in Hamburg as well as the new Jadewerft in Wilhelmshaven. There are also locations in Bulgaria, Croatia, Egypt and Brunei.

According to NVL, NVL employs a good 2,100 employees and generated sales of around one billion euros in the 2024 financial year. According to its own information, Rheinmetall has around 40,000 employees at 174 locations and made sales of 9.8 billion euros last year.