By mariuszpalczynski @ Shutterstock.com
If you haven’t heard, CSG, a Czech industrial company, has been attempting to buy the ammunition operations of Vista Outdoors, which includes Remington. Now, there’s nothing wrong with America’s NATO allies, the Czechs, but Remington has been an American-owned brand since 1816. Jeffery Hildebrand, a big donor to President Donald Trump and owner of the energy company Hilcorp, as well as JDH Capital, is putting in his own bid for Vista’s ammunition manufacturing. A successful acquisition by Hildebrand would keep the company in American hands. The Financial Times reports:
Hildebrand is one of America’s wealthiest entrepreneurs with a net worth of $13bn, according to Forbes. His holding company, Hilcorp, is one of the largest privately owned oil companies in the US after a series of acquisitions punctuated by its $5.6bn purchase of BP’s drilling assets in Alaska in 2020.
The billionaire is known for spotting opportunities to buy energy and munitions businesses being discarded by larger public companies that have abandoned such assets over ESG pressures. JDH Capital purchased Savage, a firearms manufacturer, from Vista in 2019 and earlier this year purchased munitions group Sierra from Clarus, according to its website.
Hildebrand, who has emerged as one of Trump’s wealthiest backers, co-hosted a fundraiser for the former president in Houston, according to a copy of the invitation obtained by the Financial Times. Members of the host committee gave $250,000 or raised $500,000 per couple for the Trump campaign and affiliated Republican groups.
The Hildebrand-backed bid comes as Vista is in advanced talks to sell Kinetic to privately owned CSG, which announced its recommended bid last October. Vista plans to separately list its outdoor products business, which includes bicycle helmet brand Giro and CamelBak water bottles, as a standalone company.
The company’s directors said on Monday that MNC’s offer “would not be more favourable to Vista Outdoor stockholders”, citing concerns around the group’s financing.
Vista said the company directors would therefore continue to recommend the CSG deal, but also did not state whether it would accept the proposal from the “alternative party”, or Hildebrand. The US outdoor company, however, said it would adjourn the shareholder meeting scheduled for this Friday, June 14, at which investors had been due to vote on the CSG deal. Another meeting has now been set for July 2.
The postponement would allow it to “engage with the alternative party”, Vista said. The board was “committed to maximising value for stockholders”, it added.
The Czech group’s offer had sparked warnings from Republican politicians about putting a leading US ammunition supplier under foreign ownership and it remains subject to a review by the US Committee on Foreign Investment.
But CSG’s owner and chair Michal Strnad rejected the political criticism, noting that the Czech company had already received congressional clearance to buy two ammunitions factories in the US as part of a separate 2022 acquisition, while his company also has Nato approval as a big weapons supplier.
The Czech group is one of the European arms companies playing a leading role in supplying Ukraine in its war against Russia.
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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy
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