Czechoslovak Group: Guns are booming
After many years when investors would approach defence stocks only after applying a couple of clothes pegs to the nose, the mood has most definitely changed since Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine made it clear that a bit of defence can go a long way when there’s a bear clawing at your door.
The Czechoslovak Group (CSG), a fast-growing defence and engineering conglomerate based in Prague, has made its debut on the Amsterdam Euronext bourse in what it described as the world’s largest defence IPO yet recorded.
The group was languishing until the invasion of Ukraine, but since then it has tucked in big time to the hike in defence spending across Europe. Its shares rose by 31% on its first day of trading, giving the company a market capitalisation of almost €33bn. In 2024 alone the company delivered 1-million artillery shells to Ukraine, and after the acquisitions of The Kinetic Group and Fiocchi Munizioni it is now the largest manufacturer of small-calibre ammunition in the Western world.
It is also expanding into the US, where its MSM North America branch has won a $632m US army contract to develop the Future Artillery Complex, part of the military’s mighty ammunition plant in Iowa, which it describes as “the most advanced large-calibre ammunition loading facility in North America”.
It’s a long way from CSG’s humble beginnings trading scrap metal sourced from the former Soviet bloc, including military surplus weapons, back in the wild days of the 1990s. With key investors like BlackRock and the Qatar Investment Authority, the future is looking distinctly promising.
$Trump: Trump’s crypto crash
One of the few good things you could say about Donald Trump’s memecoin is that its 90% collapse in value from its peak is not as bad as Melania’s, which has been wiped out by an impressive 99% tumble.
The memecoin describes itself as a “fun and symbolic token” and states that it is not intended to be an investment opportunity or security, but it would be interesting to discover how much fun investors who bought in at the top are having trying to explain to their families why it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Unlike all the presidents who came before him and were scrupulous about sticking all their business interests into blind trusts to avoid any potential conflict of interest during their term of office, The Donald appears to be approaching his second, and hopefully final, presidency with an attitude based on the Pet Shop Boys’ 1986 chart-buster Opportunities (Let’s make lots of money). According to analysis undertaken by the Financial Times, the two memecoins have generated an estimated $427m in sales and trading fees.
The collapse in value hasn’t been constant, and the price of $Trump perked up a little in May when the president announced that he’d treat the top 220 holders of the coin to a private dinner at one of his golf clubs. But since that glimmer of hope, the slide has returned to form.
Meanwhile, the Trump Media & Technology Group has piled into crypto, as Trump described himself as the “first crypto president”, mandating a US bitcoin reserve, firing sceptics and installing crypto-friendly leadership at the regulatory agencies.
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