It takes time to move billions of dollars. Congress can’t just write a check, send it to Zelensky and watch him put it in a piggy bank. Especially not when all the Big Men want their percentages.
But after a year and a half, it should come as no surprise that a few arms dealers now find themselves flush with cash and motivated to buy.
Czech IT Company Gobbles Up US Ammo Manufacturers – Remington, Federal, CCI and Others Being Sold Off
h ttps://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/czech-it-company-gobbles-up-us-ammo-manufacturers-remington-federal-cci-and-others-being-sold-off/ar-AA1izXil
By Michael Schwarz for MSN, 20 October 2023
On Monday, Vista Outdoor of Anoka, Minnesota, announced in a news release that it had sold its Sporting Products business to the Czechoslovak Group. Based in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, CSG operates as “a leading industrial technology holding company.”
It described CSG’s move as “the largest acquisition in the history of the Czech defense industry.”
$2 billion value.
Michal Strnad, CSG’s 30-year-old billionaire owner and CEO, expressed a determination to grow the Sporting Products business.
“We look forward to building on the company’s success in delivering innovative, quality products and are confident in the long-term value we can create together,” Strnad said in a statement in the Vista Outdoor release. He added a commitment “to expanding their legacy of U.S. manufacturing and providing resources to accelerate their growth.”
Meanwhile, Sporting Products CEO Jason Vanderbrink embraced the CSG acquisition and echoed the commitment to U.S. manufacturing.
If the manufacturing stays here then I won’t be overly concerned. Infrastructure doesn’t roll as easily as heads of state.
“The company is fully committed to our iconic American brands and expanding our legacy of U.S. manufacturing, support for military and law enforcement customers, and investments in conservation and our hunting and shooting heritage,” Vanderbrink said. “We are excited to work closely with the CSG team as we enter this next phase and position our brands for long-term success.”
That’s not all, folks!
Segue
CSG scouting for more acquisitions after Italian ammo maker Fiocchi
h ttps://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/csg-scouting-more-acquisitions-after-italian-ammo-maker-fiocchi-2022-12-05/
By Jan Lopatka, 5 December 2022
PRAGUE, Dec 5 (Reuters) – Czechoslovak Group’s (CSG) deal for 70% of small-calibre ammunition maker Fiocchi Munizioni valued the Italian firm in the “high hundreds of millions of euros”, said CSG owner Michal Strnad, adding CSG was on the lookout for more acquisitions.
The Czech-based maker of military equipment and civilian sector products has seen its organic growth boosted by Western aid to help Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s invasion.
That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re on the take; CSG is a military-industrial holdings company, so of course they’ve been making bank off the 404 War. However, I’d be surprised if Congress allowed the sale of American munitions manufacturers at the moment they’re trying to monkeybranch between 404 War, Gaza War Z and the Cold Chink War with an empty warehouse.
Financialize yourselves just one more time, Senators. I dare ye!
End segue
Thus, as one might expect, the Czech billionaire seemed most interested in making money by creating “long-term value.” No doubt Vanderbrink and other Sporting Products officials appreciated additional “resources” in the form of capital infusion.
For ordinary Americans, however, transactions of this nature produce at least some degree of anxiety.
The National Rifle Association’s Shooting Illustrated, for instance, noted that the Sporting Products business includes “some of the industry’s foremost ammunition manufacturers.”
Therefore, allowing those manufacturers to become foreign-owned might not strike the average American as the most sensible choice.
Of course, such reservations have nothing to do with Strnad personally and certainly not with the Czech Republic in particular. Having been overrun by tyrants in the mid-20th century — first the Nazis and then the Communists — the Czech people have every reason to appreciate the need for an armed citizenry.
Likewise, American manufacturers have no built-in guarantee of favorable treatment — let alone principled patriotism — from a U.S.-owned “holding company.”
BUT, American owners don’t have to appease two continents’ worth of government regulators, all of whom fantasize about disarming the White American. Consolidating all bullet makers into one owner, makes that one owner susceptible to State pressure.
Nonetheless, anxieties remain. After all, how many of their own resources do Americans still control?
Last week, for instance, Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas announced that she would evict a Chinese state-owned company that held farmland in her state.
Communist China, of course, poses threats that the Czech Republic does not. But the principle remains. Ultimate control of U.S. resources must belong only to those who have Americans’ interests foremost in mind.
Exactly.
I did some digging on Michal Strnad. He owns 100% of CSG so this isn’t hedge-fund piracy, and neither the EU nor the Czechs are likely to sabotage USA’s national security. But nothing suggests he would risk his company to continue selling to American civilians, either, if ordered to “reserve production” for government usage. Then again, these manufacturers were already owned by a single company so I’m talking in circles.
Next, I checked if Vista Outdoors was divesting itself because of lawfare or other threat. There was an effort in 2018, motivated by the Parkland shooting, but nothing recent. In 2020, Vista rescued the Remington brand & ammo facilities. In November 2021, CZ-USA filed a $1M lawsuit to recover costs from a failed effort to purchase its ammo businesses, so this was a move that had been in the works for sometime.
Vista Outdoor to Split into Two Companies
h ttps://www.outsideonline.com/business-journal/brands/vista-outdoor-to-split-into-two-companies/
By Andrew Weaver, 30 August 2022
Starting next year, Vista Outdoor as we’ve known it will cease to exist. The parent company of CamelBak, Giro, and Camp Chef announced today that in 2023 it will spin its outdoor and “sporting”—i.e. ammunition—segments off into separate companies. Chris Metz, Vista’s current CEO, will lead the outdoor business after the split; Jason Vanderbrink, the current president of sporting products, will step into the chief executive role at the ammunition business. Both companies will be publicly traded and renamed following the separation.
Hold that boldfaced thought.
According to a news release published today, the decision was handed down by Vista’s board of directors, which unanimously approved the split. “Following a thorough assessment of Vista Outdoor’s businesses, operations, and value-creation opportunities, the board determined that a spinoff of its Outdoor Products business would unlock significant value,” said Michael Callahan, the company’s chairman, in the release.
Added Metz, “As a result of the separation, our Outdoor Products and Sporting Products businesses will have resources, management teams, and capital allocation priorities tailored to their respective strategic goals. We are confident that this increased focus will better allow each company to deliver long-term value for its shareholders, employees, customers, and other stakeholders.”
The move comes at a moment of sales strength for Vista. On an earnings call this morning, the company reported healthy growth in its 2022 fiscal year (FY22), which ended March 31. According to Metz and others on the call, sales in Vista’s Sporting Products division increased 55 percent in FY22, with the Outdoor Products division seeing an 18 percent boost.
Why did they sell that immensely profitable division? Nobody sells their cash cow. They had a $1 billion backlog in orders during the 2020 lockdowns and every indicator is that today is a great day to own a munitions factory in America.
This has got to be a political decision of some kind. Remember that held thought? “Chris Metz, Vista’s current CEO, will lead the outdoor business after the split”?
Vista Outdoor CEO Resigns Unexpectedly
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By Dan Niepow, 2 February 2023
Chris Metz on Feb. 1 stepped down as chief executive of Anoka-based recreation company Vista Outdoor. The company’s board asked Metz to step down due to a “loss of confidence in his leadership,” according to a Thursday SEC filing.
The board’s decision did not stem from any disagreements relating to the company’s “operations, policies, or practices,” according to the filing. The board noted that its loss of confidence wasn’t the result of “financial reporting or internal controls,” either, which makes Metz’s departure a bit of a mystery.
That’s another thing that doesn’t happen. I have no eyes in that boardroom, but getting rid of a CEO “for no reason at all” means the board wanted somebody else in the position. The new guy is Eric Nyman, previously the COO, president and a 19-year veteran of Hasbro, Inc.
Vista has been buying up other outdoor products companies ahead of its planned separation. In July, the company announced plans to acquire Fox Racing and Simms Fishing.
I have one last clue to discuss.
h ttps://news.vistaoutdoor.com/newsroom/press-releases/press-release-details/2023/Vista-Outdoors-Sporting-Products-Announces-New-Name-as-Company-Separation-Nears/default.aspx
10 August 2023
Post-spin, Vista Outdoor will be rebranded as The Kinetic Group, a name that surfaced among employees during the naming process and represents the energy behind the company and its leading ammunition brands. The Kinetic Group will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock ticker “HUNT,” and the brand will feature original logo artwork of a North American ram. Sporting Products leaders unveiled The Kinetic Group’s branding to employees during an employee town hall on Aug. 10 at the CCI-Speer ammunition factory in Lewiston, Idaho.
Well… two months later, that’s NOT what happened. The spinoff got sold to a Czech arms dealer, and on no notice. Something queered that incorporation & stock offer.
My tentative conclusion is that there was a Social Justice-motivated disagreement in the Vista Outdoors boardroom about continuing to manufacture ammunition, no matter the profit, possibly dating back to the 2018 Parkland boycotts. A compromise was reached to divide the company.
And then, the NYSE was too ESG to allow a new arms dealer? Whatever happened, happened, and so the company was quickly sold to CSG.
The sporting goods side appears to have fallen into a black hole. It might not rebrand at all, and just continue as (publicly traded) Vista Outdoors.
I can’t say what effect Czech ownership will have on civilian supplies of ammo, but it seems clear that the sale is not a Deep State-motivated consolidation of the arms industry. Also, it was too long in coming, to have been a hostile takeover after CSG’s Italian purchase.
Banksters and their reindeer games. I’d rather have my ammo made by a privately owned, one-man shop than a corporate holding on the NYSE.
Berettas love Fiocchi and the plant is in Missouri.
One day we will wake up strangers in a strange land, a man made Tower of Babel abomination.
At least the coexist and rainbow decals are shiny.
I didn’t know CSG had bought Fiocchi too. That’s not good.
Also, Vista Outdoors used to be Raytheon, but Raytheon spun them off some years ago.
Most govt ammo is made at Lake City, which rumor has it will no longer make any ammo for civilians. Of course, the govt making it’s own ammo didn’t keep the govt from buying up all the civilian ammo in 2020. Good times.
I happen to be a privately-owned, one-man shop.