Wealthy Trump donor backs $2bn takeover offer for Vista Outdoor’s ammunition unit

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Jeffery Hildebrand, one of the wealthiest donors to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, has backed an all-cash $2bn takeover offer for an ammunition unit being sold by Vista Outdoor.

Hildebrand and his JDH Capital family office are leading an offer for Kinetic, which owns the Remington ammunition brand, raising the prospect of a multiway battle for the unit, according to three sources briefed on the matter.

Vista said on Monday it had been approached by an unnamed “alternative party” on June 7 with an “indication of interest” for Kinetic. However, the outdoor group said its company directors would continue to recommend a $1.9bn deal from Czechoslovak Group (CSG) and also rejected an improved proposal from investment group MNC Capital Partners to acquire the entire company for more than $3bn.

Shares in Vista, which has a market value of $2.1bn, traded up marginally in early Monday trading at $36. MNC’s latest offer for the group was pitched at $39.50 per share.

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 got 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 major weapons supplier, including to Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Hildebrand did not respond to requests for comment. Vista, CSG and MNC declined to comment beyond their public statements.

Additional reporting by Raphael Minder in Warsaw and Sujeet Indap in New York