Heidelberger Druckmaschinen: Restructuring Blitz Leaves Share Price Stuck and Dividend Axed
Published on 07/03/2026 at 16:56 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
Heidelberg’s shares are treading water. The stock changed hands at €1.42 on Friday, a whisker above the prior session, despite a string of transformative moves by the printing press manufacturer. Since the start of the year the equity has shed 30.15%, and it now sits closer to its 52-week trough of €1.29 than to the July 2025 peak of €2.54 — a gap of almost 44% from the high.
The company has been on an acquisition and divestment tear. In early July it folded in the life-cycle business and the global sales and service network of the manroland sheetfed group. Now it has signed a deal to take full control of POLAR, a specialist in print finishing automation. Heidelberg will take over both production and development of POLAR’s machinery, which handles everything from loading and cutting to stamping and unloading. The two firms have collaborated since the 1950s, but the POLAR plant in Hofheim has already been sold, leaving Heidelberg a fixed window to shift output into its own production footprint.
Meanwhile, production is moving east. The Speedmaster CX 104, the group’s best-selling model, is being manufactured entirely at the Qingpu site in China. Assembly capacity is also being expanded in North Macedonia. Back home, around 450 positions are being cut at the Wiesloch-Walldorf headquarters, with more than 550 severance agreements already signed. The goal is to slash manufacturing costs and restore profitability.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Heidelberger Druckmaschinen?
The most eye-catching step is a foray into defence. Through the joint venture ONBERG, based in Brandenburg, Heidelberg is manufacturing drone countermeasure systems in partnership with a Ukrainian company. CEO Jürgen Otto is driving the diversification. The medium-term revenue target for this new arm is €300 million.
None of this, however, has convinced the board to reward shareholders. For the 2025/2026 financial year the executive team has proposed a zero dividend — a so-called Nullrunde. The proposal will be put to a virtual shareholder vote at the annual general meeting on July 23. Management’s guidance for the current 2026/2027 year is also sobering: a net loss in the low double-digit millions, pinned on heavy structural costs and the ramp-up of new business lines.
The share price has largely shrugged off the news. The RSI sits at 45.9, pointing to a neutral market view. The stock is below both its 50- and 100-day moving averages, which are pegged at €1.45 each, and trails the 200-day line of €1.70 by about 16.6%. The annualised volatility over the last month stands at 41.6%, underlining continued large swings.
All roads now lead to the July 23 AGM, where shareholders will decide whether to endorse the dividend suspension and, more broadly, the restructuring strategy that has so far failed to lift the stock. The next quarterly figures will provide the first hard clues as to whether the POLAR acquisition, the China shift, the job cuts, and the drone pivot can together deliver the margin stability that the market has yet to price in.
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