Shares in Rheinmetall, which together with Krauss-Maffei Wegmann makes the Leopard tanks Germany is under pressure from Kyiv and some allies to send to Ukraine, have risen 170% in the last year.
CEO Armin Papperger told German magazine Stern he expects sales to grow to 11 billion-12 billion euros ($12 billion-$13 billion) in 2025, up from the 10 billion-11 billion euro range the firm gave in November.
For 2022, the company expects sales of 6.5 billion euros.
Rheinmetall has so far supplied Ukraine with air defence systems, which are also used to combat drones, various types of ammunition, military trucks and a field hospital, Papperger said.
Asked how much the company earns from Leopard 2 battle tanks, he said Rheinmetall was targeting a profit margin before tax of at least 10%.
Germany has so far resisted pressure from Ukraine and some NATO allies, such as Poland, to allow Kyiv to be supplied with German-made Leopard 2 tanks to defend itself against Russia.
The Leopard 2 battle tank is armed with Rheinmetall's 120mm smoothbore gun and the company also supplies ammunition, fire control technology and C4I systems for it.
A company spokesperson told media group RND that it could deliver 139 Leopard tanks to Ukraine if needed.
Rheinmetall could send 29 Leopard 2A4 tanks by April/May and a further 22 around the end of this year or early 2024, the spokesperson was quoted as saying.
It could also supply 88 older Leopard 1 tanks, the person said, without giving a timeframe for their potential delivery.
Rheinmetall, which also makes Marder infantry fighting vehicles, could gain further from the German government's 100 billion euro defence spending plans, announced by Chancellor Olaf Scholz shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.
However most of those plans, hailed at the time as a new era of more assertive German foreign policy backed by military spending, are still unclear.
UBS last week downgraded Rheinmetall to "neutral" from "buy". It said positives, including mid-term defence spending, had been priced into the stock.
Further upside depends on the order flow from the government's spending plans which is not yet reflected in Rheinmetall's order log, the bank said.
GRAPHIC: Rheinmetall shares rally - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/xmvjklwaxpr/rheinmetall.PNG
($1 = 0.9205 euros)
(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Additional reporting by Josephine Mason; Writing by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Mark Potter and Jan Harvey)
