Owner and CEO of the regional weaponry conglomerate Czechoslovak Group (CSG) Michal Strnad has become the richest Czech following CSG’s IPO on the Euronext bourse in Amsterdam last week.

The January 23 IPO became the “world’s largest defence IPO ever recorded both in terms of amount raised and market capitalisation,” according to Euronext.

CSG’s IPO was among the largest since the beginning of 2025 in terms of money raised of €3.8bn, surpassing IPOs of tech companies such as CoreWeave, Klarna or eToro, and behind just Chinese battery producer CATL and US health group Medline.

The CSG stocks gained rapidly on January 23 before steading to around €33 per stock on the third trading day this week, which is a 32% growth on the €25 per stock IPO value.

With the current market valuation of approximately €32bn CSG has also moved ahead of the majority-state-owned energy utility ČEZ to top the Czech list of the most valuable companies.

Bloomberg estimated Strnad’s fortune to amount to $37bn, making him also the world’s third richest man below 40 years of age behind Mark Mateschitz, one of Red Bull’s inheritors and Lukas Walton, grandson of Walmart’s founder Sam Walton.

The estimate also makes Strnad, who took over the reins at CSG from his father Jaroslav Strand, the richest Czech, ahead of Renáta Kellnerová, widow of late Petr Kellner, the PPF Group founder, whose assets the Czech version of the Forbes magazine estimates at CZK378 (€15.6bn), and energy oligarch Daniel Křetínský (CZK284bn).

In April 2024, CSG announced revenue of €1.73bn in 2023, which was a record-breaking year, cruising on the back of booming deliveries in the defence industry. This was a 71% growth year-on-year, while the group’s Ebitda amounted to €439mn, doubling y/y. The group’s net profit reached €210mn, an increase of 49% y/y.

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% y/y 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, a government-led project to source artillery shells for Ukraine”.

Would you like us to write about your business? Find out more