Vista Outdoor again delays member vote

With a new potential deal on the table, a stockholder vote on a proposed purchase of Vista Outdoor’s ammunition-making plants by the Czechoslovak Group has been delayed again.

The vote on a $2 billion deal of the Czechoslovak Group to acquire Lewiston’s CCI/Speer, Federal, Remington and HEVI-Shot is now set for July 23 instead of next Tuesday.

The postponement will give Vista Outdoor time to “engage with stockholders” prior to the vote, according to a memorandum to Vista Outdoor employees from co-CEOs Eric Nyman and Jason Vanderbrink, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The stockholder vote was originally scheduled for May 16. It then was moved to June 14 and later to Tuesday.

“The board continues to recommend Vista Outdoor shareholders vote in favor of the proposal to adopt the (Czechoslovak Group purchase),” according to a news release issued Thursday.

If the Czechoslovak Group acquires the ammunition plants, which are called The Kinetic Group, Vista Outdoor’s recreation brands such as CamelBak would become a separate, publicly traded company called Revelyst.

The latest postponement of the stockholder vote was announced in the same news release that Vista Outdoor confirmed that MNC Capital has increased its offer for all of Vista Outdoor to $42 per share, which according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, would be about $3.2 billion.

“Vista Outdoor’s board of directors remains committed to acting in the best interests of Vista Outdoor stockholders,” according to the news release.

Vista Outdoor declined a previous offer of $39.50 per share for all of Vista Outdoor from MNC Capital, a firm that has made a number of bids for the company this year.

The leader of MNC Capital, a group of U.S.-based investors, is Mark Gottfredson, a former Vista Outdoor board member, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Vista Outdoor requested additional information from MNC Capital on Thursday and set Monday as a deadline to receive it, according to the news release Thursday.

The request includes the identity of each of the sources of the proposed debt and equity financing, copies of the commitment letters with respect to the proposed debt and equity and a copy of the agreement for the proposed deal, according to the letter from Vista Outdoor to MNC Capital, which was included in the news release.

“Despite MNC’s public statements that it has secured financing and Vista Outdoor’s prior requests for evidence of such financing, MNC has never delivered to Vista Outdoor evidence of committed financing that is ready to be executed,” according to Thursday’s news release.

Details about the bidding war for Vista Outdoor’s bullet-manufacturing plants, which together are the largest ammunition maker in the U.S., continue to emerge in a number of media outlets, including the London-based Financial Times.

“Jeffrey Hildebrand, one of the wealthiest donors to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign,” …and his JDH Capital family office” led an offer for The Kinetic Group, according to a June 10 article in the Financial Times, which identified its sources as three briefed on the matter.

Vista Outdoor has never named JDH Capital in its news releases, but the Financial Times referenced a June 10 Vista Outdoor news release that talked about an “indication of interest” from an unspecified U.S.-based private investment firm that was offering $2 billion. The indication of interest was later withdrawn.

Hildebrand’s company, Hilcorp, is one of the largest privately owned oil companies in the U.S., according to the Financial Times.

Hildebrand “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,” according to the Financial Times.

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.