Rheinmetall’s €8.2bn Italian Tank Bid and Japan Push Fail to Halt a 25% Stock Slide
Published on 06/21/2026 at 17:06 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
Rheinmetall is charging ahead on multiple fronts — from 3D-printed tank parts to long?range missile ventures and a planned production base in Japan — yet its shares have tumbled 25% since the start of the year, with the stock closing Friday at €1,200.20. That marks a near?40% plunge from the all?time high of €1,995, leaving a yawning gap between the group’s strategic ambition and its market reception.
The company’s most immediate prize sits in Italy. Rome has earmarked roughly €8.2bn to procure new main battle tanks by 2038, and Rheinmetall, together with Leonardo, has submitted a bid based on the Panther platform. That potential order joins a string of other initiatives designed to broaden the group’s technological footprint.
In Britain, Rheinmetall is revolutionising the production of the Challenger 3 tank by printing complex pipework components from a high?temperature polymer, cutting tooling costs and speeding up design modifications. Across the Atlantic, it is working with General Atomics to mass?produce the Vektrex precision munition, which can extend the range of conventional artillery by two to three times. And with missile specialist Destinus, Rheinmetall plans a joint venture to build next?generation rocket systems, including the Ruta B3 variant capable of hitting targets up to 2,000 kilometres away.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Rheinmetall?
On the geopolitical stage, chief executive Armin Papperger used the Eurosatory defence fair in Paris to call for global rules governing the use of artificial intelligence in weapons, likening the need for oversight to the regulation of nuclear arms. The stance is partly strategic: ethical considerations are gaining weight among institutional investors, and positioning Rheinmetall as a responsible defence player could help secure long?term capital.
Simultaneously, Papperger is pushing into Asia. According to the Nikkei business daily, he plans to set up a weapons?production site in Japan via a joint venture with a local partner, opening up both the domestic market and new export routes. Rheinmetall is already known in Japan as an automotive?parts supplier, but the pivot to defence technology comes as regional tensions spur a broader military build?up.
None of that has swayed the bears. The stock closed Friday at €1,200.20, well below its 50?day moving average and far from the 200?day line of €1,584.94. Analysts at Berenberg maintain a €1,750 price target, while Morningstar sees the shares as undervalued given the full order books. Yet chartists warn that a break below the €1,100 support level could trigger another leg lower.
For now, investors are waiting for concrete contracts — particularly in Japan — to turn Papperger’s vision into earnings. Only tangible deals, they argue, can arrest the downward momentum that has dominated the past twelve months.
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