Naval Group SA

Who owns Naval Group?

The French State owns 62.25% of Naval Group, Thales holds 35%, and employees hold the remainder through a mutual investment fund and direct stakes. The state has stated it will not privatize the company.

Is Naval Group publicly traded?

No. Naval Group is a societe anonyme whose shares are not listed. The French state's majority stake and the sovereign nature of its programs preclude a public listing.

What does Naval Group build?

Naval Group designs and builds nuclear-powered attack and ballistic missile submarines, conventional Scorpene-class submarines, FDI and FREMM frigates, amphibious ships, and the systems and weapons that equip them, plus through-life support services.

What is Naval Group's revenue?

2025 revenue was 4.68 billion euros with operating profit of about 318.7 million euros, order intake of 18.9 billion euros, and a record order book of 32 billion euros.

What happened with the Australian submarine contract?

Australia awarded Naval Group a contract for 12 conventionally powered submarines in 2016, then cancelled it in September 2021 to pursue nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS pact with the US and UK. Naval Group received a settlement of about 560 million euros.

Where are Naval Group's shipyards?

Principal French sites are Cherbourg (submarines), Lorient (surface ships), Toulon (maintenance and carriers), Brest (systems), Nantes-Indret (propulsion), and Ruelle-sur-Touvre (armament), with subsidiaries in export markets.

How many employees does Naval Group have?

17,170 full-time equivalent employees as of December 31, 2025, the large majority in France.

The company's lineage begins with the state arsenals: Brest was established as a royal dockyard in 1631, followed by Toulon, Rochefort, Lorient, and Cherbourg over the following centuries. For nearly 400 years, French warship construction ran through the Direction des Constructions Navales, the DCN, a government department rather than a company.

In 2003 the French state converted DCN into a societe anonyme, DCN becoming a commercial entity while remaining state-controlled. It was renamed DCNS in 2007 as Thales took a 25% stake, later increased to 35%, bringing naval electronics into the group's scope. In 2017 DCNS became Naval Group, a name intended to carry more easily in export markets.

The post-2003 era mixed triumph and trauma. The company won Australia's 50 billion dollar Future Submarine contract in 2016, the largest defense export deal in French history, then lost it in September 2021 when Australia cancelled in favor of nuclear-powered boats under the AUKUS pact, a diplomatic rupture that briefly recalled ambassadors. The group recovered: the Barracuda program delivered its first boats, the FDI frigate line launched for France and Greece, and European rearmament after 2022 produced record orders. The 18.9 billion euro intake in 2025 lifted the order book to 32 billion euros, roughly seven years of work.

Naval Group publishes CSR reporting covering decarbonization of its sites, sustainable procurement, and workforce development in its industrial territories, where it is frequently the largest private employer. Its Cherbourg and Lorient sites anchor regional economies.

The company sits inside the standard ethical debate for arms manufacturers: its products are weapons, and export sales to Gulf and other states draw periodic scrutiny from NGOs and parliamentarians. It operates under French export licensing controls and maintains compliance programs consistent with state ownership.

AUKUS cancellation: Australia's 2021 termination of the Attack-class submarine contract was the defining controversy, costing the group its largest export program and triggering a 560 million euro settlement. The episode strained France-Australia relations for over a year.

Karachi affair legacy: Historic investigations into alleged kickbacks on 1990s submarine sales to Pakistan produced legal proceedings in France, cases that wound through courts for two decades. The matters relate to the DCN era and predate the current company's governance.

Export licensing scrutiny: Naval sales to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and other states are periodically challenged by civil society groups under French and EU export control frameworks. No export license revocation is on record against the company.