Prague-headquartered regional weaponry conglomerate Czechoslovak Group (CSG) is moving closer to an IPO and could offer around 15% of its shares in a potential initial public offering.

“It depends on many factors but I'm listening to them carefully and forming my own opinion,” CSG CEO Michal Strnad was quoted as saying by Reuters. During an interview with the news agency Strnad for the first time gave an indication of the proposed size of the potential floatation, Reuters highlighted.

As bne IntelliNews covered previously, CSG has been reported to be pushing ahead with an IPO on an international stock market potentially Amsterdam, or the domestic Prague Stock Exchange. BNP Paribas, JPMorgan and UniCredit are advising CSG on the listing.

Strnad told Reuters CSG is looking to the German giant Rheinmetall as a guide when considering the next IPO steps.

"Look at our results, compare them with our natural European peer, which you know who it is, and add a discount because it is an IPO, you don't have the German army [as a customer], and this will get you somewhere," Strnad said during the interview, adding "but of course, we don't expect a valuation like Rheinmetall’s”. 

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

CSG 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 also 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 in this year's edition, the highest-ranked weaponry company, and is valued at CZK256bn (€10.5bn), or by CZK156bn more than last year.

Reuters wrote that “if CSG was valued using Rheinmetall as a guide, it could have an enterprise value between €34bn and €50bn, before applying any discount”, basing its calculation on LSEG data. CSG would be worth around €22bn, according to Reuters, while Bloomberg reported a targeted valuation of €30bn previously, referring to its sources.

Strnad also told Reuters that "I want to have the option of potentially using shares as currency for potential acquisitions," and confirmed that the Amsterdam and Prague stock exchanges are being considered.

CSG had also made several acquisitions in recent months, expanding into the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) sector by acquiring a majority of MUST Solutions, a Serbian producer of propulsion systems for drones.

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.