Exclusive: Czech bidder for Vista raises its offer, again
The bidding war for Vista Outdoor, the parent company of CamelBak water bottles and Remington ammunition, has escalated once more.
Vista is expected to announce on Monday that it has accepted a sweetened $2 billion takeover proposal for its ammo business from the Czechoslovak Group, the Prague-based defense company, DealBook is first to report.
The details: CSG, as the Czech group is known, will now have added $90 million to its original takeover bid. (It increased its bid once before, last month.)
Under the terms of the new deal, Vista shareholders would receive $18 a share in cash for the ammo unit, known as the Kinetic Group, and one share in the company’s new publicly traded outdoor sports division.
It’s the latest twist for Vista. The company has repeatedly rejected takeover offers from MNC Capital, an investment firm run by a former Vista board member. MNC is offering more than $3 billion, which it argues is both a better financial deal and isn’t subject to the national security review that the Czech company is under.
But Vista has maintained that the CSG deal would provide more value for shareholders and that it will win national security approval.
Another bidder briefly emerged this month for Kinetic, with an offer that Vista said was “reasonably expected” to be superior to CSG’s. (While Vista hasn’t named the suitor, it was JDH Capital, an investment firm tied to the energy mogul Jeffrey Hildebrand, DealBook has confirmed after it was first reported by The Financial Times.)
Days later, however, Vista said that its new bidder had walked away; behind the scenes, MNC objected to the offer from JDH, since the two had previously explored a joint bid for Kinetic.
The new CSG deal adds another wrinkle for Vista’s annual meeting, which — after a postponement — is scheduled for July 2. One of two influential proxy advisory firms, Glass Lewis, has recommended backing the CSG offer.
But the other, Institutional Shareholder Services, changed its mind last week. It’s now recommending that shareholders abstain from voting on the deal, citing the regulatory uncertainty of the CSG bid. It supports a measure for Vista to again postpone its meeting and restart negotiations with MNC.