Colt CZ Group has completed a book-building process

February 2022 — Some shareholders of Colt CZ Group have completed the sale of part of their shares in an accelerated book-building process (ABB) targeted at selected investors. The US$50 million ABB (comprising secondary shares only) was launched after the share price had risen by approximately 111% from the 2020 IPO and circa 17% over the two preceding months.

Colt CZ Group is one of the leading European premium brand producers of firearms for military and law enforcement (MLE), personal defense, hunting, sport shooting and other civilian purposes, with sales in nearly 100 countries. The company is continually enlarging its offering and, coupled with dedicated M&A activity (Colt in 2021), is targeting to become a one-stop shop for MLE clients, and a leading player in the consolidation of the small firearms industry.

Our role in the transaction

Oaklins’ team in the Czech Republic acted as the sole global coordinator in this transaction. The team secured orders from multiple non-institutional investors as well as eight institutions from the Czech Republic, two from the UK and one from Slovakia, therefore demonstrating the new force of the Czech market of local non-institutional investors and confirming the continuing appetite of local institutional buyers. Oaklins also engaged one of the leading Czech brokers as a selling agent to tap into the new non-institutional sector.