Insights: Why Kongsberg splits defence and maritime

When the Norwegian market closes this afternoon, Kongsberg Gruppen separates its maritime business as its own company. 

Formally, it is a demerger. In practice, it is a decision about focus.

The group has reached a point where its two core businesses are no longer moving at the same speed.

In 2025, Kongsberg’s maritime division generated revenues of just over NOK 27 billion, slightly more than the NOK 25 billion recorded by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace. On paper, the two businesses are roughly equal.

But inside the company, they are not.

- We expect stronger growth in defence going forward, says Magnus Melvær Rasmussen, an analyst at SEB. 

- It is a business that clearly demands more attention.

It will be more cooperation than competition

Magnus Melvær Rasmussen, analyst at SEB

The defence division is expanding rapidly, driven by rising demand for missile systems, air defence and military technology. 

The maritime business, by contrast, is growing more steadily, tied to shipbuilding cycles, aftermarket services and the long transition towards lower-emission vessels.

That imbalance is beginning to shape how the group is run.

Differing focuses

- Many investors are in Kongsberg primarily for the defence exposure, says Magnus Melvær Rasmussen. 

For management, the issue is not just valuation. It is attention.

As the defence business scales, it increasingly defines priorities - from capital allocation to industrial expansion. The risk is not that the maritime division underperforms, but that it becomes secondary.

- I think it makes sense from the perspective of both businesses being large and deserving full management focus, Rasmussen says. 

- A company can perform better over time if they have full management focus, so that you don’t forget the maritime business in the massive defence boom that we are seeing.

Many investors are in Kongsberg primarily for the defence exposure

Magnus Melvær Rasmussen, analyst at SEB

That risk is visible in the company’s own strategy.

Kongsberg has spent recent years investing heavily in defence capacity, expanding production and securing long-term contracts across Europe, the US and Asia. 

The maritime business, meanwhile, remains anchored in a different model: roughly half of revenues come from newbuilds and half from aftermarket services, providing stability but also tying growth more closely to industry cycles. Only 12 percent came from naval contracts.

The result is a group where one division is scaling quickly, while the other is optimising.

No competition

The remaining company will be built around defence and advanced technology, with a clearer industrial direction and fewer internal trade-offs. Kongsberg Maritime, as a standalone company, will gain control over its own capital priorities and strategy — without competing for attention with a faster-growing sibling.

The split does not break the industrial links between the two.

- They have separate lanes. It will be more cooperation than competition, Rasmussen says. 

Maritime systems will still be used in naval vessels, and technology will continue to move between the businesses.

But organisationally, the link becomes looser.

For years, Kongsberg’s strength was precisely that combination - civilian and military, cyclical and structural, short-term and long-term. The demerger abandons that balance in favour of clarity.

It is a bet that each business performs better on its own than as part of a whole.

And, more quietly, an admission that they have already started to drift apart.