Rheinmetall acquires NVL marine division with Lürssen subsidiaries

Düssel­dorf — A naval power­house in Germany: Düssel­­dorf-based tech­no­logy group Rhein­me­tall has reached an agree­ment with the Lürs­sen Group on the acqui­si­tion of Naval Vessels Lürs­sen (NVL B.V. & Co. KG, Bremen-Vege­­sack) and all its subsi­dia­ries, the mili­tary divi­sion of the long-estab­­lished shipy­ard group. Subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties, the parties are aiming to complete the acqui­si­tion at the begin­ning of 2026. With this signi­fi­cant stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion, Rhein­me­tall is expan­ding its port­fo­lio to include naval ship­buil­ding and streng­thening its posi­tion as a leading supplier of defense tech­no­logy in Germany and Europe. 

Both parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

Armin Papper­ger, CEO of Rhein­me­tall AG: “In the future, we will be a rele­vant player on land, at sea, in the air and in space. Rhein­me­tall is thus deve­lo­ping into a cross-domain systems house.”

Fried­rich Lürßen, Mana­ging Part­ner of Lürs­sen Mari­time Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH & Co. KG: “We are deligh­ted to have found a trust­wor­thy and strong part­ner in Rhein­me­tall, who can secure a successful future for NVL and its
employees.”

Guns­mith sets sail

To date, the Düssel­­dorf-based company has not manu­fac­tu­red ships, but prima­rily arma­ments for land forces, such as tanks, artil­lery and air defense systems. As a supplier, the company is also invol­ved in the produc­tion of the US F35 figh­ter jet, and the arms manu­fac­tu­rer also produ­ces drones and soon mili­tary satel­li­tes. Now the arma­ments group, which is on a steep growth trajec­tory in the face of the war in Ukraine and is rushing from one record turno­ver and order back­log to the next, is setting sail, so to speak. 

For deca­des, Rhein­me­tall has made a name for itself world­wide as a renow­ned supplier of mili­tary tech­no­logy, but has also been a proven part­ner to the navies of nume­rous count­ries in the mari­time sector for many years. Rhein­me­tall alre­ady offers a selec­ted range of modern system compon­ents for mari­time appli­ca­ti­ons and is a leading global supplier of simu­la­tion solu­ti­ons and mari­time protec­tion systems in particular. 

Armin Papper­ger: “With the now agreed acqui­si­tion, we are decisi­vely advan­cing the conso­li­da­tion of the defense indus­try in Germany and Europe. In combi­na­tion with Rhein­me­tal­l’s compe­ten­cies, we are crea­ting a vital German power­house for state-of-the-art surface ships. The combi­ned capa­bi­li­ties of Rhein­me­tall and NVL gene­rate joint growth and enable a strong posi­tio­ning of our Group in the mari­time domain. At the same time, we are making a substan­tial contri­bu­tion to streng­thening the maritime
defense capa­bi­li­ties of Germany and NATO part­ner nations.” 

The current conflict situa­tion shows that military
asser­ti­ve­ness is also beco­ming incre­asingly important in the mari­time sector. Rhein­me­tall aims to meet the massi­vely incre­asing requi­re­ments of naval forces and the
rising budgets for procu­re­ment with high-perfor­­mance system solutions
that have a state-of-the-art digi­tal infra­struc­ture and cover the entire
spec­trum — from the plat­form and elec­tro­nics to the sensors and effectors. 

NVL is a priva­tely mana­ged shipy­ard group with four shipy­ards in nort­hern Germany (Peene-Werft /
Wolgast, Blohm+Voss and Norderwerft/ Hamburg, Neue Jadewerft/ Wilhelms­ha­ven) and
inter­na­tio­nal loca­ti­ons. It employs a good 2,100 people world­wide, gene­ra­ted sales of around EUR 1 billion in the
2024 finan­cial year and is conside­red a pioneer in the rese­arch and
deve­lo­p­ment of auto­no­mous mari­time surface systems. Since its begin­nings around 150 years ago,
NVL has built around 1,000 ships at its shipy­ards and deli­vered them to over fifty diffe­rent navies and
coast guards, and is an estab­lished player both in mili­tary ship­buil­ding and
in ship main­ten­ance and repair. Previously known as Lürs­sen Defence, NVL was sepa­ra­ted from the
Yachts divi­sion in 2021 and contin­ued as an inde­pen­dent company within the family-run
Lürs­sen Group. NVL looks after fleets throug­hout their entire life cycle
and thus helps to keep the German Navy and Navies ready for action world­wide at all times

Rhein­me­tall wants to offer complete system solutions

Armin Papper­ger: “The acqui­si­tion will not only turn us into a produ­cer of floa­ting platforms
. As an inte­gra­ted naval power­house, we want to offer complete system solu­ti­ons. We will be able to offer our custo­mers all
valuable compon­ents in future programs from our partner
network as an inte­gra­ted solu­tion from a single source: Naval missiles and launchers,
main and secon­dary naval guns, missile defence, sensors and other electronics.
For the battle manage­ment system, we want to enable the inte­gra­tion and
Germa­niza­tion of exis­ting solu­ti­ons from our part­ner network.” 

A key success factor for Rhein­me­tall is that the Group alre­ady has excel­lent market access as a
supplier in the global naval busi­ness, has a presence in the
inter­na­tio­nal markets and enjoys the corre­spon­ding trust of its customers.
Another advan­tage for Rhein­me­tall is the expan­sion of produc­tion capa­ci­ties and
the expan­sion of the Group’s indus­trial base in nort­hern Germany. In parti­cu­lar with the
vehicle produc­tion of Rhein­me­tal­l’s Vehicle Systems divi­sion — which operates
sites in Kiel and Flens­burg, among others — synergy effects can be expec­ted on the basis of shared mate­rial and tech­no­logy expertise
.

NVL’s shipy­ards offer the oppor­tu­nity to utilize the exis­ting heavy infra­struc­ture, employee exper­tise and equip­ment capa­bi­li­ties to streng­then Vehicle Systems’ produc­tion and create capa­city reser­ves in the vehicle sector for the future. This enables Rhein­me­tall to avoid exces­sive infra­struc­ture invest­ments or exten­sive conver­si­ons of other produc­tion facilities. 

www.rheinmetall.com