(In the fourth paragraph, the number of employees was corrected: 8,300th TKMS also operates a shipyard location in Brazil.)
Essen/Kiel (dpa -AfX) – Germany’s largest naval ship manufacturer TKMS becomes independent and goes to the stock exchange. At an extraordinary general meeting, the shareholders of the group mother Thyssenkrupp decided to split off the Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) division.
With the spin-off, according to Thyssenkrupp boss Miguel López, the division should get a larger entrepreneurial freedom in order to be able to grow better. López assumes that the new company TKMS AG & Co. KGAA will be entered in the commercial register in mid -October. A stock market is said to take place immediately afterwards.
Thyssenkrupp retains 51 percent of the shares in TKMS
The company continues to belong to the Thyssenkrupp group: Thyssenkrupp AG keeps a majority of 51 percent through a new holding company. The remaining 49 percent of the TKMS shares are transferred to the Thyssenkrupp shareholders-in relation to their participation. They become direct shareholders of TKMS.
According to its own information, the company is the world market leader for non-nuclear submarines, but also builds frigates and corvettes. The company employs around 8,300 people. The shipyard locations are Kiel, Wismar and Itajaí, Brazil. TKMS operates other locations in Hamburg, Bremen and Emden. CEO is the former Thyssenkrupp working director Oliver Burkhard.
“We give the company the entrepreneurial freedom to act faster, to invest more specifically and to further expand its leading position,” said López at the Annual General Meeting. The independence means more scope for action. He referred to full order books and numerous submarine orders from Germany, Norway and Israel since 2021. “And just recently, Singapore has ordered again from TKMS-two more submarines for the Indopazacific area,” continued López.
TKMS order stock is over 18 billion euros
The company is also asked in civil research: “The construction of the new German research ship” Polarstern 2 “for missions under extreme climate and weather conditions was awarded to us – with an order volume of around 1.2 billion euros.” Overall, the order stock has grown by more than 50 percent to more than 18 billion euros since the end of September.
With the independence, TKMS gets direct access to the capital market and can advance investments in new technologies and markets on their own, said the Thyssenkrupp boss. In addition, the listing of the stock market makes the value of the company visible to the outside.
In the past, the federal government was also talked about at TKMS. A security agreement is now planned in which the federal government receives special information and consultation rights for so-called sensitive activities. In a key point paper, Thyssenkrupp and the Federal Government have already agreed on approval and pre-purchase rights for the federal government. The federal government should also receive the right to propose a member for the new TKMS supervisory board.
Starting to the federal government still possible
The acquisition of the Federal Republic of Germany is not part of the paper, said Volkmar Dinstuhl, the chairman of the TKMS. “However, Thyssenkrupp AG is ready to enter an in -depth dialogue if you are interested.” The security agreement should be concluded by the end of September at the latest.
At the general meeting, shareholders were mostly positive about the split off. “A clear focus on the respective business can lead to better corporate management and thus also better decisions,” said Marc Tüngler from the German Protection Association for Securities (DSW). The attractiveness for investors is “because clearly delimited business models do not have the painting of a conglomerate”.
Shareholder representative: Group mother remains shadow captain on bridge
Hendrik Schmidt from the fund company DWS (DWS Group GmbHco) criticized the planned leadership structure with a majority of the company mother, in which six out of ten members of Thyssenkrupp are determined. “For the time being, the promised independence remains a trip under supervision, with the group mother as a shadow captain on the bridge,” he said. The financial expert demanded that the supervisory committee should be occupied by the interests of minority shareholders.
According to Dinstuhl, it is not yet clear which people should go to the supervisory board. The largest single shareholder of Thyssenkrupp AG, the Krupp Foundation with a share of 21 percent, should get a seat.
The independence of the marine division is part of a group removal at Thyssenkrupp planned for the coming years. The other four sectors should also be set up independently and opened for the participation of third parties ./tob/dp/jha
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