Czechoslovak Group buys ammo maker Fiocchi Munizioni

Fiocchi makes ammunition for the .50 Browning Machine Gun. (Fiocchi)

Czech Republic-based conglomerate Czechoslovak Group (CSG) has expanded its foreign footprint by acquiring a 70% stake in Italian ammunition manufacturer Fiocchi Munizioni, the buyer announced on 25 November.

Petr Formánek, CSG's head of mergers and acquisitions, said the Fiocchi purchase is consistent with CSG's strategy of buying companies that are “oriented towards Western Europe and the US”. CSG chairman Michal Strnad said that Fiocchi enjoys a “solid presence” in NATO countries.

Fiocchi, which makes ammunition for handguns, machine guns, rifles, and shotguns, will become part of a new CSG division called CSG Ammo+. Fiocchi employs more than 1,300 people and expects to generate a consolidated revenue of over EUR380 million (USD393 million) in 2022. It has operations in the UK and the US in addition to Italy.

About a fifth of Fiocchi's production is for its defence and law-enforcement segment, a CSG spokesperson told Janes on 28 November. Fiocchi also serves the hunting and sports shooting markets.

UK private equity firm Charme Capital Partners, which was Fiocchi's majority owner for the past five years, and the Fiocchi family will retain the remaining 30% stake in the company, which was founded in 1876 by Giulio Fiocchi. Charme Capital declined to comment on the deal, and financial terms were not disclosed.

The transaction news follows Fiocchi Munizioni's mid-November announcement that it plans to spend USD41.5 million to build an ammunition primer factory on a 281-acre site in Little Rock, Arkansas, in the US. The company expects to start construction in 2023 and begin operations at the facility in early 2025.