After a year of bargaining and eight adjourned meetings, Vista Outdoor shareholders on Monday overwhelmingly approved the Anoka-based company’s plan to sell its ammunition brands, including Federal, to a Czech company for $2.15 billion and its outdoor brands to a private equity group for $1.125 billion.
After year of bargaining, deal to sell Federal ammunition to Czech firm overwhelmingly approved
Shareholders OK’d Vista Outdoor’s plan to sell its ammunition brands to Czechoslovak Group for $2.15 billion, and its outdoors brands to a private equity group.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
November 25, 2024 at 11:08PM
After the deal for Vista’s Kinetic Group is completed, new owner Czechoslovak Group (CSG) plans to keep its U.S. ammunitions business headquarters in Anoka. The deal also includes Remington, Speer and CCI.
“CSG welcomes the decision of the Vista Outdoor general meeting, which opens the way to closing the transaction,” said company spokesman Andrej Cirtek in a statement.
The outdoors brands unit, called Revelyst, includes Bell and Giro bicycle accessories, CamelBak water bottles, Camp Chef, Simms Fishing and Bushnell and Foresight golf products. Connecticut-based Strategic Value Partners (SVP) will be the new owner after a brief period of trading as an independent public company.
“We are thrilled to have received overwhelming support from our stockholders for the compelling transaction with CSG,” said Michael Callahan, chairman of the Vista Outdoor board of directors, in a news release.
Both deals will have to complete customary closing conditions before they officially close. CSG’s deal should close before the end of the year. The Revelyst deal should close in January, hence the brief period as a new public company.
The outcome is a result of Vista’s decision in May 2022 to split into two standalone companies. There was quick interest in the ammunitions group, and in October 2023 Vista announced a deal with the Prague-based CSG.
In the 13 months since, CSG raised its bid multiple times as unsolicited offers competed with it and parties, including Vice President-elect JD Vance, expressed concerns the deal should not pass approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Eventually, CFIUS approved the deal.
As offers were received, Vista’s board postponed the special shareholders meeting to approve the CSG deal. The offers came from MNC Capital, a Texas-based investment group headed by a former Vista board member. MNC had been one of more than two dozen prospective bidders when Vista decided to go with CSG.
After losing the initial bid to CSG in October 2023 MNC Capital reformed earlier this year to make unsolicited bids to acquire all of Vista Outdoor.
Central to MNC Capital’s bid was that as a U.S.-based investment group would own a leading U.S. based manufacturer of small caliber ammunition.
Strategic Value Partners had been a part of MNC Capital’s bids this year, with the intent of SVP running the Revelyst brands. SVP split with MNC after MNC’s bid stalled this fall.
In the end Vista Outdoor reported that 98% of the shares voted supported the CSG deal and approximately 83% of outstanding shares were voted.
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