Regional weaponry and ammunition conglomerate Czechoslovak Group (CSG) has confirmed plans to launch an initial public offering (IPO) plan in Amsterdam, where it wants to emit €750mn in stock through CSG B.V.

“We think that a CSG company IPO would further raise the awareness of the group in the international investment community and offer additional financial flexibility and diversification of financing sources to support further growth,” CSG’s CEO Michal Strnad stated in a press release shared by the Czech Press Agency (CTK).

Reports of an upcoming CSG IPO have been appearing regularly in recent months with Amsterdam and the local Prague Stock Exchange market as the two most likely destinations.

Last week, Strnad told Reuters that the final destination and the size of emission depends on many factors, but said he was “listening to them carefully and forming my own opinion”. BNP Paribas, JPMorgan and UniCredit were reported to be advising CSG on the listing.

Strand also stated in the company’s most recent press release that “CSG has been successfully developing through organic growth and strategic acquisitions and has become one of the forefront global defence groups, which delivers a diversified portfolio of products to key long term clients in Europe, United States and other regions in Asia and the Pacific.”

CSG has reportedly already received offers from Artisan Partners Limited Partnership, BlackRock and Al-Rayyan Holding LLC worth €900mn altogether.

The dividend should reach up to 30-40% of the net profit of CSG B.V. and should be paid from 2027, the company said.

After it is turned into a joint-stock company, CSG B.V. will have five board executives, including Strnad, CSG CEO David Chour, CSG head of acquisitions Petr Formánek, CFO Zdeněk Jurák and head lawyer Ladislav Štorek.

Additional non-executive board members are set to include former Nato representative John Nicholson, former Lagardére and Airbus manager Virgine Banet and Susanne Wiegand, supervisory board member at Volkswagen AG Susanne Wiegand, and former CEO at SVG Capital plc Lynn Fordham.   

As bne IntelliNews reported last month, the Prague-headquartered CSG registered a rise in revenue of 82.4% y/y in the first three quarters of 2025.

CSG also registered the steepest percentage increase in arms sales revenues on the list of 100 largest arms-producing companies worldwide compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

CSG revenues rose by 193% year-on-year in 2024 to $3.6bn (€3.1bn) SIPRI highlighted, noting that “the company attributes the majority of its revenue to Ukraine”, and that CSG “benefited from the Czech Ammunition Initiative, Czech government-led project to source artillery shells for Ukraine”. 

CSG surpassed Ukraine’s own JSC Ukrainian Defence Industry, the SIPRI report noted, which increased arms revenues by 41% to $3bn. CSG also rose in the Česká elita (Czech elite) list of most valuable Czech-owned companies where it sits fifth place in this year's edition, the highest-ranked weaponry company, and is valued at CZK256bn (€10.5bn), or CZK156bn more than last year.

The company is also a key ammunition producer in Slovakia, where its founder and Michal Strnad’s father Jaroslav Strnad is regularly criticised for enjoying close links to the left-right cabinet of the populist Prime Minister Robert Fico.