An Israeli Group Takes Over the Greek Plant That Assembles Leopard Tanks

The SK Group, an Israeli technology and innovation holding company based in Kiryat Gat in southern Israel, acquired ELVO, Greece's leading manufacturer of specialised military and civilian vehicles, in an announcement made on Tuesday and reported on 20 August 2025. The group said the purchase was its first step into the European market.

SK Group's vice chairman, Ronen Hamudot, told The Press Service of Israel that the thinking behind the deal was “actually to invest more in developing the company, not only in the defense sector, but also in the commercial one”, opening a route into the European and potentially global market for armoured fighting vehicles and tanks. “We see tremendous potential in ELVO's infrastructure and legacy, and we are committed to transforming it into a leading global hub for production and export,” he said. The group employs around 2,000 people across the 60 countries where it has a presence, and works in frontline defence, paramilitary equipment, marine infrastructure, electro-optics and laser systems, imaging and search-and-rescue technology.

What ELVO actually builds

ELVO is based in Thessaloniki, Greece's second city, and runs two production lines. The commercial line, Hamudot said, “mainly serves Greece and involves activities such as bus assembly, cabin train assembly, painting, and other maintenance”, while the defence line “will initially focus mainly on upgrades and assembly of tanks and armored personnel carriers”. The company has produced Leonidas armoured personnel carriers and Mercedes-Benz G-Class jeeps used by the Hellenic Army, along with Steyr trucks, specialised vehicles and buses, and holds a certified assembly line for Leopard 2 HEL tanks, the Greek variant of the German main battle tank.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the August 2025 transaction made SK Group the sole owner of ELVO, having previously held a partial stake, and described the Greek manufacturer as a company of more than fifty years' standing supplying the Hellenic Armed Forces. The Leopard 2 line is the strategically significant piece: an in-country capability to assemble and overhaul a main battle tank is a long-term revenue stream regardless of who owns the factory.

Why Athens is buying Israeli

The acquisition sits inside a defence relationship that has deepened sharply. In April 2026 Greece signed a $750 million contract with the Israeli firm Elbit Systems for PULS rocket artillery systems, covering launchers, precision-guided and loitering munitions, with Greek industry taking part in production through technology transfer, Breaking Defense reported. The initial contract runs four years with a further decade of support, and forms part of a wider Greek modernisation drive that includes major planned spending on air defence and fighter upgrades.

The export machine behind the buyer

Israeli defence exports reached a record $19.2 billion in 2025, almost 30 per cent up on the previous year and a fifth consecutive annual record, The Times of Israel reported from defence ministry figures published in June 2026, with Europe the largest destination at 36 per cent of the total. Over the longer run, the same report ranked Israel the world's seventh-largest arms exporter for 2021–25, ahead of the United Kingdom for the first time, drawing on the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's fact sheet on international arms transfers, which records the United States as still by far the largest supplier at 42 per cent of the global market. Buying a European factory rather than exporting into Europe is a different play: it puts production inside the customer's borders, where procurement rules increasingly favour it.

What was not disclosed

Neither the announcement nor the interview gave a price for ELVO, the size of the stake acquired, or any figures for the Greek company's revenue, order book or workforce. No investment figure or timetable was attached to the promise to develop the plant, and no specific product programme was named for the defence line beyond upgrades and assembly work. The group's reference to search-and-rescue technology used “during the recent attack on Israel” is not elaborated in the material provided.