CSG shares added 5.72% in Prague today, closing at CZK 379.1. Over the past five trading days, they are up roughly 11%. They rebounded from support around CZK 340. I don’t see this move as being driven solely by sentiment toward defense stocks. CSG’s strong position in the US, built up in the meantime, is also playing a significant role.
CSG entered the US in 2022, when it bought the American part of Italy’s Fiocchi, with ammunition and primer factories in Missouri and Arkansas. A bigger move followed. In November 2024, it completed the roughly two-billion acquisition of Kinetic Group from Vista Outdoor. It acquired the Federal, Remington, CCI, Speer and HEVI-Shot brands, as well as Alliant Powder gunpowder. The factories are located in Minnesota, Arkansas, Idaho and Oregon, and employ 3,800 people.
This makes CSG one of the largest manufacturers of civilian ammunition in the world’s biggest market. Its American factories also open the way to government contracts, for example through the SwarmShot counter-drone system, in which Federal is involved.