Vista Outdoors Board Recommends Selling Ammo Business To CSG

The board at Vista Outdoors is unanimously behind a restructuring plan that will see the Czechoslovak Group (CSG) buying its ammo-related business, with the rest of the company restructuring after the sale.

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The news comes after Vista’s board rejected a buyout offer from American investors at MNC Capital. MNC reportedly offered Vista a buyout price of $42 a share, which would work out to $3.2B for the whole company. Vista’s board rejected that offer, saying it wasn’t enough cash. Instead, they unanimously backed an offer from CSG which sees the Czechs paying $2.1B for Vista Outdoors’ ammunition business, which is conducted under a subsidiary called the Kinetic Group.

Now, the ownership of Speer, Federal and Remington ammunition brands will go to CSG, as long as the deal passes at Vista’s July 23 shareholder vote. The outdoor brands that Vista controls through its subsidiary Revelyst (Fox, CamelBak, Bell) would be re-formed into a new company.

CSG has been trying to acquire Vista’s ammunition business for months now, with regulatory hurdles being one of the biggest obstacles in the way. The U.S. federal government might not have traditionally been keen on domestic ammunition production shifting into overseas ownership, but this sort of thing is the way the game is played these days. Remember that Colt is now owned by CZ, which recently also purchased the Sellier & Bellot ammo business.

A combination of a lagging U.S. economy and piles of money floating around Eastern Europe as the conflict drags on in Ukraine has resulted in deals that would have been unthinkable a half-decade back.

MNC actually said it was the better choice for Vista’s sale, due to its domestic ownership—MNC said this would make the deal close more quickly. But Vista’s board rejected that argument, saying a deal with MNC would take months while the deal with CSG is approved to go ahead quickly.