Shock of the day! Taurus may buy Freedom Group.

[Old Fuff]

I'm sure this may come as a shock to some who consider Taurus to be a bush league player in the firearms business.

Gun Ban No Obstacle to Taurus Bid for Freedom: Corporate Brazil

By Christiana Sciaudone - Jan 17, 2013

Brazilian gunmaker Forjas Taurus SA (FJTA4) is emerging as a likely bidder for Freedom Group Inc. as analysts bet that proposed U.S. gun controls will fail to deter demand in the world’s largest consumer firearms market.

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Taurus, the acquirer of U.S. revolver maker Heritage Manufacturing Inc. last year, would be a good suitor for all or part of Freedom Group, according to brokerage Coinvalores and Wedbush Morgan Securities. Taurus, which said in November that it’s “analyzing acquisition opportunities”

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“Despite recent tragedies, they still look to the U.S. market with a lot of optimism,” Bruno Piagentini Caloni, an analyst at Sao Paulo-based Coinvalores, said in a telephone interview. “One of its growth strategies is through the acquisitions of small companies that already have a traditional presence in North America.”

Snip

Taurus, the world’s second-largest gunmaker by revenue, has gained 66 percent in the past year, outpacing a 2.4 percent increase for Brazil’s benchmark Bovespa index. Smith & Wesson (SWHC) Holding Corp., the largest gunmaker by revenue, rose 92 percent, while No. 3 maker Sturm Ruger & Co. advanced 33 percent.

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The U.S. generated 55 percent of Taurus’s net income of 505 million reais ($248 million) in the first nine months of last year.

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Sales at Madison, North Carolina-based Freedom in the first nine months of 2012 rose 20 percent to $677.3 million.

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Forjas Taurus posted about $265 million in revenue in the same period. It has six factories in Brazil as well as one in Miami and currently controls 19 percent of the U.S. market, Piagentini said. Dionisio places the company among the top 10 handgun manufacturers worldwide.

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Freedom Group may fetch $745.7 million to $1.13 billion in a sale, based on the ratios of enterprise value to Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes depreciation and amortization, of publicly traded competitors such as Smith & Wesson and Sturm Ruger (RGR), data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Read the entire article by logging on to the following link:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...-taurus-bid-for-freedom-corporate-brazil.html

 

[MachIVshooter]

I think that's wishful thinking by Taurus. I really don't see how they could afford it.

 

[BearGriz]

I wonder if they can get it at a bargain, and then make loads of money once it looks like the storm has past (I'm hopeful it will pass and prices, etc. will return to a semblance of "normal")

 

[USAF_Vet]

Obama did tell tell Brazil that we would invest in their drilling and be their best customer.

Maybe Taurus is doing better financially than we think.

 

[nathan]

Let the Chinese buy it so prices can be affordable.

 

[mgmorden]

Eh - the thought of Remington being owned by a foreign company is a bit disheartening, but its better than the companies being dissolved.

In many ways though I think Ruger and S&W together have become for more ubiquitous as the main US firearms makers (and Savage is great on the rifle side of things and is still US owned and operated).

If Taurus has the cash then by all means they should go for it.

 

[Old Fuff]

I think that's wishful thinking by Taurus. I really don't see how they could afford it.

Smith & Wesson (SWHC) Holding Corp., the largest gunmaker by revenue, rose 92 percent

Taurus, the world’s second-largest gunmaker by revenue, has gained 66 percent in the past year

No. 3 maker Sturm Ruger & Co. advanced 33 percent