Exosens: Theon buys HGH (EO/C-UAS) - reinforcing a key customer’s platform, not creating a new direct rival

Research evidence excerpt

Exosens: Theon buys HGH (EO/C-UAS) - reinforcing a key customer’s platform, not creating a new direct rival

NSTEIN FLASHMAIL

18 June 2026

Aleksander Peterc

+33 1 57 29 45 25

Global Aerospace & Defense aleksander.peterc@bernsteinsg.com

Exosens SAS

Rating

Outperform

Price Target

EXENS.FP 72.50 EUR

Exosens: Theon buys HGH (EO/C-UAS) - reinforcing a key

customer’s platform, not creating a new direct rival

KEY READ-ACROSS FROM THEON’S LATEST (SIZABLE) M&A MOVE ON HGH SYSTEMES INFRAROUGES

Theon's agreed acquisition of HGH Systemes Infrarouges, in our view, is not a frontal threat to Exosens' drone and anti-drone

momentum.

The two companies sit at different layers of the counter-UAS (C-UAS) value chain: HGH supplies wide-area passive infrared detection

systems (the Spynel panoramic IRST range plus its Cyclope and GAIA AI software), whereas Exosens supplies the components and

cores (image intensifier tubes, thermal camera cores and various detection devices) that are embedded inside drones and sensor

systems.

HGH is therefore more plausibly a customer of Exosens-type detectors, rather than a direct competitor.

The more material consideration for the Exosens thesis is structural, not product-level. Theon holds a 9.8% stake in Exosens, with

a strategic image-intensifier-tube supply partnership, while simultaneously assembling a vertically integrated European optronics

champion (HGH, Kappa Optronics, ShockEOS, the Safran UAS JV). This creates a coopetition dynamic that is currently largely

complementary, though it does warrant active monitoring for potentially more threatening head-to-head component-level competition

in Exosens’ core areas.

On Theon's balance sheet, HGH lifts inferred net leverage to approximately 3.7x on a trailing basis and approximately 3.0x on a forward