CZG announces acquisition of Colt
The Colt Combat Elite Government (45ACP). (Photo: Colt)
CZG has announced the closing of its acquisition of Colt.
Česká zbrojovka Group (CZG) has announced that it has successfully closed on its acquisition of 100% of the equity interest in Colt Holding Company LLC for $220million in cash and stock.
Colt Holding Company is the parent company of the US firearms manufacturer, Colt’s Manufacturing Company, as well as its Canadian subsidiary, Colt Canada Corporation.
CZG and Colt are confident that the merger will bring significant operational, commercial and R&D synergies for the combined business.
The combined businesses generated Pro-forma aggregated annual sales in excess of $570million and have more than 2,000 employees in the Czech Republic, the United States, Canada and Germany.
The acquisition occurred following the lengthy process of securing all necessary regulatory approvals from the Canadian and the US authorities, which is traditionally reluctant to allow foreign companies to purchase US defence firms.
Colt recently found itself in a position of financial difficulty when the organisation filed for bankruptcy in June 2015.
The contributing factors to the bankruptcy included: bad management, product portfolio and imprudent financial engineering.
Colt officially exited bankruptcy, with its emergence from Chapter 11 restructuring, in January 2016.
This acquisition reflects the renewed confidence in Colt’s financial stability and quality of its products.
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