Even in a European stock market that was decidedly heavy on the day the US imposed tariffs, the stock Leonardo, although volatile, remains mostly in positive territory. The watchword at the moment is “rearm“, as the European and English authorities are indicating, in all its declinations. While some media are even going so far as to speak of a “secret plan” by the government for reconvert Stellanti's car factories to defenseyes, a more realistic operation is taking shape: the pressure from the Italian government because Leonardo you buy the Iveco military activities, Iveco Defense, the jewel of the group controlled by Exor. It is reported The paper along with other media that hypothesize 750 million for the acquisition.
An operation that "we believe is possible in the context of a reorganization of European land defense aimed at increasing the production of drones, which cost less but scale to high volumes. Pending the March 11 plan, our valuation by sum of the parts is currently 37 euros per share" observe the analysts of Websim.
At the moment, however, the route appears difficult due to the Exor's excessive demands, which in the meantime is thinking about separating the activities to benefit from the increases in the stock market. In fact, as a preparatory step, the CEO Olof Persson is already organizing the spin-off of Iveco Defence Vehicles from the Iveco group.
The title Leonardo continues to run on expectations of an increase in defense spending in Europe, accumulating a rise since the beginning of the year of 77%, with yesterday a +16%. Today, with a Ftse Mib down in the late morning by more than 2%, Lenardo instead gains another +1,65% to 45,52 euros, despite some oscillations that also brought it to a minimum in the morning at 44,10 euros.
There are many areas in which Leonardo could shine further, says Websim: in the space sector with the strategic partnership between Leonardo and Thales for the Space Alliance and Leonardo's industrial participation in Avio, with MBDA, the main European consortium building missiles and defense technologies in which Leonardo participates, the recent partnership with Baykur on drones, the joint venture with Rheinmetall. Leonardo is trading today at 27x/23x P/E on 2025/2026 estimates, analysts say.
