Freedom Group Inc., which owns the Remington, Marlin, Bushmaster, Dakota and the Mountain Khakis brands, among others, called off its plans for an initial public offering. The Madison, NC company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to withdraw the registration statement for the stock sale. According to the filing, Freedom may hold a private offering instead.
“At this time, the company has determined not to proceed with the initial public offering,” Freedom said in filing last Friday. The company did not provide a reason.
Freedom said in that it “may undertake a subsequent
private offering” through Rule 155c of the Securities Act of 1933.
Freedom filed for the IPO in October 2009, only to experience several
setbacks since then, including a slower gun market in 2010 and the
September 2010 departure of Chief Executive Officer Theodore Torbeck.
Robert Nardelli, the former CEO of Chrysler LLC and Home Depot Inc., stepped in as temporary head of Freedom in October while the company searched for a permanent replacement for Torbeck.
In the October 2009 filing for its IPO, Freedom said it would seek to raise as much as $200 million. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, a unit of Charlotte, North Carolina- based Bank of America Corp., and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. had planned to underwrite the IPO.
Last year, sales fell 12.3% to $744.3 million from $848.7 million a year ago on weakness from the firearms segment, which plummeted 23.9% to $386.6 million from $508.1 million on tough comparisons against fiscal 2009. Ammunition and Other products improved 3.2% and 35.3%, respectively, against the year-ago period. The company reported a net loss of $6.7 million compared to a net income of $54.0 million a year ago.
