Colt CZ Group has completed an accelerated bookbuild offering

June 2023 — Some shareholders of Colt CZ Group have completed the sale of part of their shares in an accelerated bookbuild (ABB) offering targeted at select investors. The share price rose by almost 15% from August 2022 (last 12 months low) to right before the start of the ABB, up over 105% from the IPO in 2020. The US$15.1 million ABB (comprising secondary shares only) represented approximately 1.74% of the outstanding shares in the company.

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, Spuhr i Dalby in 2020/2022 and SwissAA Holding in 2023), 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 advised TXPATCH8445 Holdings, who acted as an agent for certain former US-based shareholders of Colt Holding Company, who obtained a stake in the company in connection with the acquisition of Colt by the company in May 2021, and decided to sell part of its holdings. Oaklins acted as the sole global coordinator in this transaction. The team secured orders from multiple non-institutional investors as well as institutions from the Czech Republic, the UK, Liechtenstein and Hungary, therefore confirming the appetite of local and international investors and their ability to provide sufficient demand to successfully complete transactions on the Prague Stock Exchange. Competition among investors enabled Oaklins to bring the price to CZK 555, at a discount of only 6.7% vs. the pre-ABB last closing price.