OHB's Record €3.35 Billion Backlog Sets the Tone as KKR Prepares a €1 Billion Exit

The numbers coming out of Bremen are hard to ignore. OHB SE has piled up a record order book worth €3.35 billion, a 45% jump from a year ago, and the company's management is today laying out the strategy to convert that pipeline into sustainable cash flows. But the headline news on the day of the Capital Markets Update is not just the operational strength — it is the blockbuster share sale that private equity house KKR has set in motion.

KKR, which holds nearly 29% of OHB through its Orchid Lux Holdings vehicle, is placing roughly 20% of its stake in a secondary offering worth well over €1 billion. The sale has attracted a seven-bank syndicate: Berenberg and Commerzbank have joined the earlier mandated trio of Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, together with Jefferies and UniCredit. The placement will shrink KKR’s holding but leave the founding Fuchs family firmly in control with 65% of the voting rights. CEO Marco Fuchs dismissed any talk of a delisting, saying customers value the transparency that comes with a stock market listing.

The timing of the offering is no accident. OHB’s first-quarter numbers, released ahead of today’s strategy presentation, show a business firing on all cylinders. Revenue climbed 15% to €200.8 million, while total output — a broader measure of production activity — rose by the same percentage to just under €279 million. More importantly, profitability is improving. The adjusted operating profit hit €16.8 million, pushing the operating margin from 4.3% to an even 6%. The adjusted EBITDA margin stood at 9.7%, underscoring the group’s ability to translate growing volumes into bottom-line gains.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying OHB SE?

The foundation for this momentum is the bulging project pipeline. OHB Sweden landed what the company calls the largest single order in its history: the EPS-Sterna constellation, comprising 20 microsatellites designed to deliver Arctic weather data. Another major boost came from the Ramses mission, contracted through the Italian subsidiary with the European Space Agency. The group now targets an average annual order intake of around €3 billion over the medium term, powered by rising budgets from ESA, the European Union and national governments, plus an increasingly important defence segment.

Longer-term bets also feature in the strategic outlook. OHB is partnering with Dassault Aviation on the planned VORTEX-S multipurpose spacecraft — a programme that, like many space infrastructure projects, demands heavy upfront investment. How the company squares such expenditure with the need to generate steady free cash flow is likely to be a central topic at today’s investor session.

The stock, which briefly touched €486.50 earlier in the week, has been volatile partly because of OHB’s exceptionally tight free float. With KKR’s block and the Fuchs family’s controlling stake, only about 6% of shares are freely traded. That thin liquidity amplifies price swings and adds an extra layer of uncertainty around the placement’s pricing.

Looking ahead, OHB has a packed corporate calendar. The ex-dividend date for the proposed €0.60 per share cash dividend is 9 June 2026, followed by the annual general meeting on 24 June. Second-quarter results are due on 6 August. For now, all eyes are on whether management can convince the market that the record orders will translate into a clear path of cash generation — and whether KKR’s partial exit can be executed without unsettling the stock.

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